A grade nine student from Bernice MacNaughton High, is looking forward to next year, when he hopes to compete in the Canadian Geographic Competition.
James Cogswell just returned from Ottawa, where he placed fourth at the challenge, “The five finalists were all sitting in the backroom, behind the stage before the finals were about to happen. We were all tapping our fingers, because we were really, really nervous. The worst part was walking out onto the stage and the lights were all shining. Once we got a few questions under our belt, we weren’t nervous anymore.”
It was James’ second year competing.
Our Geo Challenge finalists are doing fieldwork on Ottawa’s Victoria Island this afternoon. Top 5 revealed tonight! pic.twitter.com/oROE6VwCDP
— Canadian Geographic (@CanGeo) June 4, 2016
We’re ready to get started ! The 21st annual CanGeo challenge is underway. Watch live at https://t.co/aUm7Yp4gKg pic.twitter.com/9naNopLYMH
— Canadian Geographic (@CanGeo) June 5, 2016
He says next year will be the last year he can compete, so he is going to work really really between now and then, “Just train with questions all year. I have a few websites, and a few Atlases, and will study as hard as I can until next year.
He also brought a lot of new information home from the competition this year, “Every question that I had to guess the answer in this competition, afterwards I would look it up and find out what the correct answer was. So I know the answer to all of the questions that were asked now. I am still doing research too, so I am always learning new things about Geography.”
Around 30, 000 students across Canada compete to win their chance to go to Ottawa.
