Kyle Peterson was so nervous to be in Harbour Pointe Middle School’s geography bee that he didn’t want his parents to watch him compete.

But even with his nerves, Peterson, a sixth grader, recently won the school-level National Geographic Bee.

“I think he was a little too nervous to have us there,” said Kyle’s mom, Liz Mac Dougall.  “He said he was very, very stressed out when he went head-to-head with another boy because they went back and forth, back and forth for a while.”

The National Geographic Bee, a program of the National Geographic Society, is a nationwide geography competition for students in grades four through eight. The geography bee is designed to encourage the teaching and study of geography, according to the NGB Web site.

Every January, social studies teachers at Harbour Pointe host the geography bee for sixth, seventh and eighth graders. 

“We feel that by encouraging students to participate, it opens up the door to the importance of learning about geography,” said social studies teacher Ann-Patrice Riccardo. 

Just 12 students from Harbour Pointe – mostly sixth graders – competed in the geography bee, Riccardo said. Last year, only eighth graders signed up for the competition. 

The school-level competition was conducted in two rounds on Jan. 14 and 19 after school in the school library.  Friends and parents of the contestants were invited to watch.

Six of the 12 students remained at the end of round one.  In the second and final round, students were eliminated from the competition, one by one, with every incorrect answer, until it was just Peterson and another sixth grader. That’s when it got intense.

Questioning between the two sixth graders went back and forth for several minutes as they both kept answering correctly, until finally Peterson won.  But don’t ask him what the winning question was – he was so nervous that he doesn’t remember.

 “I was in shock, like ‘How the heck did I win?’” Peterson said.  “I didn’t really expect to be able to win.”

As the winner, Peterson then took a test on Jan. 28 to determine if he is qualified to represent his school in a state-level geography bee as one of the 100 top students in the competition.  Results for the test are scheduled to be sent out in March.

Peterson’s social studies teacher, Allison Perry, helped him study for the qualifying test.  She had him study maps and answer practice questions from the official National Geographic Bee study guide and Web site.

“Kyle is a good student who works hard in class,” Perry said.  “He enjoys trivia and discovering new information, not only about geography, but in all subject areas.”

Now Peterson is studying for the state-level competition in April, just in case he qualifies.

“Every day I go up at lunch and she (Perry) helps me learn geography,” Peterson said.  “Sometimes the questions on the National Geographic Web site are a little hard, but it’s going well.”

State winners are invited to the National Geographic headquarters in Washington, D.C., in May to compete against students from across the United States in a national-level geography bee.  Alex Trebek of “Jeopardy” fame hosts the competition.

National winners receive scholarships for $10,000, $15,000 and $25,000.

“I think just coming this far has been so wonderful for him,” Mac Dougall said.  “It really made him feel good.  If he makes it to state, that’s wonderful, and if not, we’re all just so proud of him anyway.”