CU-Boulder Students To Mark Geography Awareness Week With "Geography Geopardy"

Teams of University of Colorado at Boulder students will celebrate national Geography Awareness Week by playing "Geography Geopardy" on Thursday, Nov. 19.

The competition for prizes will begin at 7 p.m. in room 206 of the Guggenheim Geography Building, with geography Professor Gary Gaile standing in for Alex Trebek.

The event is free and open to the public.

Following are other geography activities planned for the week:

o Geographer and adventurer Mark Jenkins will present a slide show talk Nov. 17 about his journey on the Niger River. The 7 p.m. event in room 121 of the Geology Building is free and open to the public.

o A packet of teaching materials will be sent to every public school in Colorado on the theme of "People, Places and Patterns: Geography Puts the Pieces Together." The packets are being sent by the Colorado Geographic Alliance, based in the geography department's Center for Geography Education.

o Two statewide school competitions, a poster-making contest for K-8 students and an essay-writing contest for high school students, also will be sponsored by the Colorado Geographic Alliance.

The Colorado Geographic Alliance is one of CU-Boulder's largest outreach programs and links the university to 7,000 members dedicated to improving geography education. The alliance receives funding from the National Geographic Society and the state of Colorado.