Ethan Thorn, Kill Devil Hills resident and student at First Flight Middle School, has been named a semifinalist eligible to compete in the 2018 North Carolina National Geographic State Bee on Friday, April 6.

The above-named student has been notified by the National Geographic Society that he has been named a semifinalist eligible to compete in the 2018 North Carolina National Geographic State Bee. The contest will be held on Friday, April 6, 2018.

Ethan is the son of Andrew and Michaela Thorn of Kill Devil Hills.

This is the second level of the National Geographic Bee competition, which is now in its 30th year. School bees were held in schools with fourth-through-eighth grade students throughout the state to determine each school champion.

School champions then took a qualifying test, which they submitted to the National Geographic Society. The National Geographic Society has invited up to 100 of the top-scoring students across the nation to compete in state bees.

To celebrate the 30th annual National Geographic Bee, the cash prize for the top three students in each state has doubled. Each state champion will receive $200, the “National Geographic Visual Atlas of the World, 2nd Edition” and a trip to Washington, D.C., to represent their state in the National Geographic Bee Championship to be held at National Geographic Society headquarters, May 20-23.

Students in second place will receive $150 and those that come in third will receive $100. The first-place national champion will receive a $50,000 college scholarship, a lifetime membership in the society, including a subscription to National Geographic magazine, and an all-expenses-paid Lindblad expedition to the Galápagos Islands aboard the new National Geographic Endeavour ll. Travel for the trip is provided by Lindblad Expeditions and National Geographic. Second  and third-place finishers will receive $25,000 and $10,000 college scholarships, respectively. See natgeobee.org for more information.

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How would you fare as a National Geographic Bee contestant?

At the school Bees this year, students had to answer questions like these:

1. The Appalachian Mountains run through which state—Georgia or Mississippi?

     A. Georgia

2. The North Platte and South Platte Rivers meet in which state—New Mexico or Nebraska?

     A. Nebraska

3. Which state straddles the Tropic of Cancer—Hawaii or Alaska?

     A. Hawaii

4. Which form of mass production was used by Henry Ford to produce automobiles in large quantities in Detroit, Michigan—threshing machine or assembly line?

     A. assembly line

5. What is the term for the physical location where a plant or animal lives—habitat or pattern?

     A. habitat

6. Which country does not contain large areas of desert—Chad, Venezuela, or Iraq?

     A. Venezuela

7. Public steam baths called hammams are part of the culture in cities such as  Casablanca and Marrakech in which African country?

     A. Morocco

8. The Delmarva Peninsula includes parts of Delaware, Virginia, and which other state?

     A. Maryland

9. The easternmost part on the Horn of Africa is located in which country?

     A. Somalia

10. Angkor Wat, built as a tribute to Hinduism, is located in which Southeast Asian country where Buddhism now predominates?

      A. Cambodia