Le Mars Community Middle School seventh grader Zach Kooistra will compete in the 2008 Iowa Geographc Bee on April 4. [Click to enlarge]

A Le Mars Community Middle School student has advanced to the 2008 Iowa Geographic Bee.

Seventh grader Zach Kooistra, son of Marie and Mike Kooistra, will compete at the 2008 Iowa Geographic Bee set for Friday, April 4, at Drake University in Des Moines.

Kooistra was notified by the National Geographic Society that he is one of the semifinalists eligible to compete in the April 4 bee, sponsored by Plum Creek.

Kooistra took first place in the Le Mars Community Middle School Geography Bee held in January and conducted by participating middle school social studies teachers. As the school winner, Kooistra, along with other school-level winners across Iowa, took a 70-question written test which was submitted to the National Geographic Society to determine whether he would advance to the state bee. National Geographic Society invited the students with the top 100 scores to compete at the state level in each of the 50 states, as well as the District of Columbia, the Department of Defense Dependents Schools and the U.S. territories.

The Iowa state winner will receive $100, a globe and a trip to Washington, D.C., and the opportunity to represent Iowa in the national finals at the National Geographic Headquarters May 20-21. The national winner will receive a $25,000 scholarship.

At the school-level bee this year, students had to answer such questions as:

* Known for its production of alpaca wool, Arequipa is a major commercial and tourist center in what country just south of Ecuador? (Answer: Peru)

* A Mediterranean climate occurs in only one state in the United States. Name this coastal state. (Answer: California)

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* Name the major river that flows through Turkey and Syria before joining the Tigris River in Iraq. (Answer: Euphrates River)

* The region of Alsace-Lorraine has changed hands four times since 1870 between France and what other country, which occupied the area during most of World War II? (Answer: Germany)