Student taking geography knowledge to state
Jenn Brookens — Staff WriterArticle Photos
TRIMONT - Eighth-grader Andrew Alsworth has been fascinated with maps since an early age.
"I've been looking at maps for a long time, even when I was little," he said. "In this filing cabinet my dad has, I'd take the maps of D.C. out and I'd look at them. Then I got an atlas, and now I spend a lot of time on Google Earth."
His interest has paid off. He has qualified to participate in the state geography bee in April.
Alsworth, son of Tom and Roberta Alsworth of rural Sherburn, won the school geography bee when he went against the top 10 students in grades 4-8. School-level winners are then given a test that is submitted to the National Geographic Society. Alsworth's score was in the top 100, qualifying him for state competition.
To get ready for the competition, Alsworth has worked ahead on lessons for Asia and Africa. But as it turns out, there aren't a lot of areas in the world Alsworth hasn't already studied on his own.
"I was looking at Antarctica the other night," Alsworth recalled. "There's still a large chunk of Antarctica that's unclaimed, and I found that very interesting."
He also mentioned the recent news of some crustaceans and jellyfish discovered living in Antarctica.
But his home turf of the United States and Canada are his favorites to study.
"I don't look at the big cities as much in Canada as these two little towns up in the area where my mom grew up," Alsworth said.
While studying Europe, Alsworth found himself intrigued with the Netherlands and the polders built there.
"I like the older architectures," he said, explaining how he studies the architecture and cultures of the different countries. "The European and Greek styles of architecture I like a lot, but there's some new stuff I like too."
So where's the one place he wants to go?
"There are so many places I would like to travel and see," he said. "There are a lot of places I think would be fascinating."
But when pressed, he can think of one place in particular.
"Japan," he said. "There's a lot of different cultures there, the architecture and the technology, they have so much advanced technology there."
The state geography bee will be held April 9 at St. Cloud State University.
"We're always proud when we have a student that qualifies for the state bee," said Dave Lundquist, Alsworth's geography teacher. "But I wouldn't be surprised to see Andrew go a long way ... He's got a lot of knowledge in that head of his. But it's all the luck of the draw and what type of questions he gets."
