Brothers at the bee

Robert and James Merchant know their way around a globe. The two brothers are this year’s school National Geographic geography bees at Homewood Middle School and Hall-Kent Elementary, respectively.

For seventh grader Robert, this is his fourth school win — the first as a fourth grade student at Hall-Kent — and he’s hoping for a fourth trip to the state bee. It’s the first win for fifth grader James, as well as the first time he qualified for Hall-Kent’s competition.

At Homewood Middle, Robert won by correctly identifying Vancouver as the largest city in British Columbia, which also hosted the 2015 Women’s World Cup. James doesn’t remember his winning question, but after several tiebreaker rounds he made “a lucky guess on this insane question” by naming the African country of Chad – and won.

“It was Chad. I think I’m going to remember that for a long time,” James said.

Robert became interested in geography through an elementary school computer game identifying U.S. states and cities. He began studying hard to qualify for the first time as a fourth grader. When he won and went on to compete at the state bee, Robert remembers feeling small on the stage next to a bunch of middle school students.

After a fifth place finish at the state level, Robert decided to keep studying and competing at the bee. In fifth and sixth grade, he repeated his fifth place finish at state. This year, Robert is studying harder in hopes of landing the first place spot, which would take him to the national competition in Washington, D.C.

“Obviously this year I’m hoping to place higher,” Robert said.

James, who has sat in the audience for the past three years to watch his brother compete, directly credits Robert for his involvement in geography bees.

“It was mostly my brother because in fourth grade, I didn’t really care about it,” James said. “He has a real passion for it and I thought it would be fun to compete, and he really inspired me.”

He studied all the suggested National Geographic sites – the Weird But True geography facts were his favorite – but James said his older brother was his best resource preparing for the school bee. Robert said his little brother was able to win with a lot less studying than he had under his belt at the same age.

“I couldn’t have done that in fifth grade,” Robert said.

It can be nerve-wracking to answer questions on stage, but James has his own reasons to hope for a spot in the state bee.

“I hope I make it to state because I want to beat him really bad. I’m not sure that that will happen, but I hope so,” James said.

Lisa Littlejohn, the Hall-Kent teacher who has given the geography bee questions for both Robert and James, said it’s impressive how many facts the Merchant brothers and other children can remember.

“Some of the questions are so hard. Some of them I don’t know and the judges, we all look at each other. We don’t even know how to pronounce the countries,” Littlejohn said.

If both Merchants qualify for the state level, she said they will be supportive of each other regardless of how they rank.

“It’s exciting. They know so much,” she said. “Nothing would be better than for them to come in first and second place.”

Both James and Robert said they’re proud of each other for their wins and want to enjoy themselves if they make it to the state bee.

“I think I’m going to lose if I’m competing against my brother. It’s going to be really hard but really fun to meet new people and trying to keep up. I’m going to try my best and nothing more I can do than that,” James said.

The Alabama geography bee is held at Samford University. According to National Geographic’s geography bee website, school-level winners will find out if they qualify in early March, and the state bee is held on April 1 in every state.