Friday, October 7, 2016

2017 iGeo Selection Day held in Wellington

On Monday 3rd October we hosted the 2017 iGeo Selection Day to select a team of four students to travel to Serbia. It was great to have 12 students from all around New Zealand attend the day. Students were selected to attend as they were the top entries in the NZBoGTs annual Year 12 essay competition. The day involved a range of written tests and a fieldwork exercise on the Wellington Waterfront.

Students selected to attend the day were:

Sarah
Hyne
Otumoetai College
Alfie
Richardson
John McGlashan
Dylan
Wilkie
Wanganui High School
Yan Hao
Tay
Burnside High School
Kaila
Robertson
Burnside High School
Shona
Mani
Rutherford College
Jamie
Struthers
Kerikeri High School
Libby
Inwood
Kerikeri High School
Samantha
Molloy
St Andrew's College
Jonny
Wispinski
Kings High School
Malachi
Buschl
Kings High School
Charlotte
Carter
Wellington East Girls' College
Reuben
Hill-Smith
Rongotai College


Students participated in field work along the Wellington Waterfront


We would like to thank all of the students for making the effort to come to Wellington for the iGeo Selection Day. We really enjoyed meeting all of them and thought that they showed exceptional geographic knowledge and were excellent representatives for your schools. We would also like to thank Wellington East Girls' College for hosting the event.

The team selected to travel to Serbia will be:

Jonty Wispinski - King’s High School
Libby Inwood - Kerikeri High School
Sarah Hyne - Otumoetai College
Yan Hao Tay - Burnside High School

We have also selected two non-travelling reserves:

Dylan Wilkie - Wanganui High School
Malachi Buschl - King’s High School

The New Zealand Geography Olympiad Team to Beijing, China 2016.

After nearly a year of training, preparation and fundraising the 2016 New Zealand team were all set to compete against 45 other countries in the 13th International Geography Olympiad (iGeo). Representing New Zealand were Isla Hutching-Bryant and Barnaby Roche from Wellington, Nick Webber from Auckland and Henry McCallum from Christchurch. Accompanied by team leaders, Nick Page and Louise Richards, the students were an absolute credit to their geography teachers, schools, and families.

The team flew out from Auckland and en route to Beijing had a stopover in Hong Kong. In Isla’s words: “we stopped off in Hong Kong for a few days to rest and ease ourselves into the heat and humidity we would be experiencing in China. From the moment we touched down our itinerary was full with activities like walking through the never ending markets, taking the Star Ferry across to Hong Kong Island and heading up Victoria Peak. Staying in this vibrant city was definitely great preparation for what we would encounter in Beijing”.

Feeling rested and acclimatised, the team flew from Hong Kong to Beijing – after the 11-hour flight from Auckland to Hong Kong the three-hour flight felt like a walk in the park! Arriving in Beijing at the same time as the Brazilian and Nigerian teams, everyone was soon making friends and we all set off together to our accommodation, the Beijing Convention Centre (BCC). This was a memorable first journey on Beijing’s motorways as the traffic, and driving, was certainly a contrast to anything we’d experienced in New Zealand!

After we settled into our accommodation we set out for our first excursion – the famous Bird’s Nest stadium built for the 2008 Olympic Games. Alas, while we were unable to recreate Usain Bolt moves on the 100m track or practise our sprint starts the stadium certainly offered up amazing architecture and views of the city.

The extent of the Olympic Park wowed the team, but thinking like geographers, the team were quick to question the legacy of the stadium and use of the facilities built. Returning from the Olympic Park it was time to get ready for the opening ceremony. It was here that the students had the chance to experience what schools were like in Beijing as both the ceremony and the competition exams which followed were held at the No.80 High School. A highlight of the opening ceremony were the various cultural performances performed by students from the No. 80 High School. Visiting teams were treated to a visual symphony of both tradition and modern chinese music and dance.

With all the new sights, experiences, team camaraderie and banter it was easy to forget we were here for a competition and the team soon found themselves in the examination room pitting their geographical knowledge and understanding against the best geographers in the world. As Nick Webber describes: “The competition was challenging to say the least. The written response and multimedia [exams] depended mainly on how well the questions suited you and your knowledge. The fieldwork worked well for us kiwis as it looked more so at critical thinking and evaluation as well as being a collaborative task. The theme for the fieldwork this year was eco cities and looked at Beijing's sustainability and liveability in terms of residential spaces, water management and traffic”.

To break the intensity of the examinations, excursions were often made to popular attractions around Beijing. As Barnaby reflects : “Excursions were to the Forbidden City, Summer Palace and The Great Wall. Each provided insight into the rich history thanks to our tour guide, Sunny, who was extremely enlightening. A team highlight was the iconic landmark, The Great Wall. A physical challenge in the heat was climbing the several kilometers of steps to the 12th Fortress – it was worth the views when we, eventually, reached the top!"

After six days of rigorous competition and excursions, the 13th iGeo concluded with a closing ceremony including medal presentations to the highest performing students. All of the NZ team members performed admirably, but a special mention must go to Barnaby Roche (Rongotai College) and Nick Webber (Pakuranga High School) who both achieved bronze medals for their efforts. This year’s competition was the biggest yet and the standard and calibre of students was very high.

The team concluded their time in Beijing with two extra days based in the older, traditional hutong area just to the north of the Forbidden City. Haggling in the Silk and Pearl markets for clothing and souvenirs, negotiating our way on the crowded subway system and deciding whether or not we were game enough (we were not!) to try delicacies like locusts or scorpions were all memorable experiences. An absolute highlight for the team was a half day guided cycling tour around the narrow lanes of the hutong districts. If you want to experience a completely different side to Beijing, then the team would highly recommend this!

The trip is certainly one the team will never forget. As Henry explains: “China was intense and much more frantic than New Zealand. It was interesting to explore a place and culture different to our own. In addition to the competition meeting other teams from across the globe was a highlight, in particular we spent a lot of time with Team Great Britain, creating firm friendships over the course of the competition”.

Geography is about developing our understanding of place and to critically evaluate our individual and collective decisions about our interactions with places. The Geography Olympiad, by way of its host city location and the global scale of the competition, certainly provides students with a unique, memorable and fantastic opportunity to do just that. We hope that more teachers will be inspired to enter their students into our national selection process for this prestigious competition in the years that follow!