Joel Walker wins Lowery Middle spelling bee

290 students participated in the Lowery Middle School Preliminary Competition of the 2105 National Geographic Spelling Bee on Jan. 15. Only one walked away as champ – Joel Walker.

Walker worked his way through to be school champion, while Markus Lasseigne finished second place and Gary Williams finished in third place.

Top 9 qualifiers at Lowery Middle were:  Williams, Lasseigne, Madison Pitts, Alec Foret, Lyndria Spurlock, Jyren Ester, India Wilson, Willie Picou, and Walker.

Rules for the 2015 National Geographic Bee consist of the following:

Oral Questions

Preliminaries

-           7 Rounds: United States, Team Turf, Odd One Out, Weird But True!, World Comparisons, Nat Geo Wild Animal Atlas, Pop Artists on Tour

-           Up to 10 students with highest scores in preliminary rounds qualify for finals

Finals

-           Narrow field to 2

Championship Round

-           Top 2 from finals

School Champion

-           Takes a written test, which is submitted to National Geographic

Up to 100 top qualifiers are selected to participate in each state bee. ALL state bees will be held on March 27.

Winners of state bees go to the National Championship Bee, May 11-13, 2015, in Washington, D.C.