Camarillo High Students’ Knowledge Is All Over the Map

They remembered that Oregon’s Crater Lake is the deepest in the United States. They identified the Andes as the world’s longest mountain chain. And they knew that the ancient Minoan civilization sprouted up in Crete in 2900 BC.

A team of Camarillo High School students had those answers and more Saturday to take top prize in Geo Bowl VIII.

The six-member Camarillo squad beat 19 other teams representing nine Ventura County high schools in a test of their knowledge of geography, economics and other global facts and figures.

It was the third consecutive year Camarillo High School has won the tournament, which was held at Oxnard College. For their efforts, the team members received trophies and will be treated to a helicopter flight by Aspen Helicopters of Oxnard.

Ventura’s St. Bonaventure High School finished second in the team competition and Santa Paula High School placed third.

Camarillo High School senior Kevin McDonald, a member of the winning contingent, also won the individual written portion of the competition, with Steve Reeder of Santa Paula High School placing second and Armando Alvarado of St. Bonaventure third.

McDonald, who will graduate this year and plans to pursue a career in the medical field, finished third in the individual competition in 1995 and second last year. In winning this time around, he answered 43 of 50 questions correctly.

“It’s not something I practice, it just comes to me,” said McDonald, 18. “I don’t study it. I just do it.”

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Joining McDonald on the winning team were Kevin Burrow, Ryan Hart, Amanda Hansen, Jonathan Hashimoto and Josh Strubeck. Camarillo High School also sent three other teams to the competition.

“All I do is get them here,” said Bill Miles, the Camarillo High School instructor who has served as advisor of the winning team each of the last three years.

“I think it’s their enthusiasm,” Miles said, explaining the team’s success. “And the Oxnard Union High School District has geography as a graduation requirement, so it helps us get kids who are geographically oriented.”

Second-place team members were St. Bonaventure students Alvarado, James Basolo, Kathleen Rudolph, Tom McConville, Celina Sanchez and Chris Nelson.

Third-place finishers were Reeder, Brett Yeoman, Reid Yeoman, Timmy Yuen, Nick Rericha and Sheila Zuniga of Santa Paula High.

The eighth annual competition, which took place in front of a crowd of anxious parents and educators, involved students of various ages and abilities.

Teams of jittery students were given 30 seconds to answer each of 20 questions. Camarillo got 18 right. A tie-breaker question was used to break a second-place tie between St. Bonaventure and Santa Paula.

Geo Bowl has grown steadily over the years, from a contest among several students in its inaugural season to an event that included about 140 participants this year.

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The growth of the competition pleases those who think U.S. students lag behind others in geographical knowledge.

“If you look at some other countries worldwide, if you ask them world geography questions, they know the answer,” said Don Brockett, dean of the letters, arts, math and science division at Oxnard College. “The goal here is to stimulate an interest in geography.”

Brockett, chairman of the Geo Bowl committee, said he was encouraged by the students’ knowledge.

“These kids really blow my mind,” he said.

Oxnard City Councilman Bedford Pinkard, one of the judges, had equally high praise.

“The kids are impressive,” he said. “It’s encouraging. . . . I think academic competition is good. It’s as important as athletic competition.”

And Pinkard admitted that he was glad to be a judge rather than a contestant.

“I would hate to put myself in the position of the children, having been away from geography so long,” he said. “I got some of the questions right, but that’s just because of my age.”

Oxnard College geography instructor Chris Mainzer, one of the founders of the Geo Bowl, said it was nice to see a high level of geographic literacy among the students.

Public schools are gaining a greater appreciation for the subject, she said.

“Geography doesn’t have to be taught in high school as an independent discipline,” Mainzer said. “People are beginning to realize that geography can be incorporated into the sciences.”

Mainzer, who compiled the list of questions for the test, expected students to know more than just land masses and mountain ranges.

“Asking questions on the environment and the political situation, too, keeps them on their toes,” she said.