We are celebrating the launch of the 2025 GeoBowl at Piney Branch Elementary!  The GeoBowl is an optional Geography Competition – this year it focuses on the geography of the United States. 

Students will be coming home with a packet that is full of maps and geographic trivia.  It should be a lot of fun for them to read and complete.  Students have a month to complete the packet: GeoBowl packets are due February 7th!  To encourage students to complete the packets, they will each earn individual prizes for turning in a packet – and the classes with the highest completion rates will win donut parties! If students need additional assistance completing the packets, there are volunteers available in the Cooperative Learning Room:

  • Thursday, January 30 after school from 4-5pm

  • Friday, January 31 before school from 8-9am

 
Students who want to participate in the GeoBowl Competition must complete a packet and then take a short quiz at school during the week of February 17th and will then be organized into diverse teams, which will practice during their pod's lunch time for 4-weeks in late February and through mid-March.
 
1. Packet Correctors (particularly for the following classes - Berardi, Brooking, Gazda, Granados, Luker, Madsen, Patrick, Serra, Tolson)
- You will probably have ~15-20 packets to correct, and they should take about 10 minutes each. You can do this at home, any time that works for you.
- Corrector packet and pen will be provided.
 
2. Coaches
- Teams are created within grades and pods, and practice during lunch periods starting in late-February. 
- We will provide you with a suggested study guide.
- You need to be available to come into the school for approximately one hour once a week for 4-weeks during the time your team eats lunch.
 
3. GeoBowl Competition Volunteers
- Volunteers are needed to act as timekeepers, judges, scorekeepers, etc. for the actual GeoBowl competitions (two per grade). The time commitment is less than two hours at the school for each competition.