The love of geography has grown in the mind of Rowan Madsen.
The West Liberty Elementary School fourth grade student was not only Champion of the Elementary Division in the 2022 International Geography Bee for the Southern Iowa Regional Finals held in Chariton on April 9, but claimed the National Science Bee title that same day.
The son of Kristin Madsen and Nicholas Tuthill, has always had a thirst for learning and knowledge according to his mother. “He would always rather watch a documentary over a cartoon,” she said. “When it came to sources of entertainment (books, TV, games), I leaned into the educational forms of entertainment. If he was willing and wanting to learn, I wanted to give as many opportunities to do so.”
That paid off in the competition when competitors two years older surrounded him. “As far as he knew- he had to be the smartest kid in the room to make it to Nationals, and he was,” she said.
Kristin said her son has always been fascinated by the world around him, telling a story about when he was in kindergarten and his teacher would ask the class to find items in the room that start with each letter in a provided work, like Spring, then they would have to find things that start with S, P, R, etc.
“Row would sit in front of the Globe to complete those assignments,” she learned. “That’s when I learned South Sudan was a country and he’s been teaching me about the world ever since!”
The young lad got involved in the contests through the school’s TAG (Talented and Gifted) program, directed by Sarah Wagamon. She learned Rowan had a great interest in geography, so the teacher researched and found an opportunity to participate in the contest, where he had to complete a qualifying exam.
“As far as I know, he is the first West Liberty student to compete in this competition,” said Wagamon, pointing out that in the past, there have been middle school students who participated in a similar contest which is no longer available. She said it was the first she’d learned of the competition, known as International Academic Competitions.
She said Rowen was the only student to take the geography and science-qualifying exam. “His love and knowledge of geography are far beyond most students his age.”
She said many of her other students competed in competitions this school year including art, robotics, and writing. “I try to find opportunities based on the students' interests to keep them motivated and to challenge them,” Wagamon said. “Rowen has spent months studying for the geography exam and enjoyed every minute!”
Rowen said he gained interest in geography first through a road map and then pushed himself into finding out more and more about the world through studying geography. He said he’d love to travel, learning more about other countries and cultures and has a strong desire to get to Europe but says his ultimate goal would be to travel to the mountains of Buane, Asia.
He said his career goal is to be a marine archaeologist, but said that will likely change as he gets older, saying he wants to be “open minded” about his future.
“As a toddler, instead of playing with matchbox cars or trucks, he collected miniature figurines of skyscrapers across the world,” Told Kristin. “His pretend play took place at the Burj Khalifa, Big Ben, or the Taj Mahal. During trips to Barnes and Noble his readers of choice were National Geographic’s that taught him about space, weather, geography as well as people and events that changed the world. He didn’t have a lot of room or time for Pete the Cat!”
She says love of geography had led him to develop power point presentations in his spare time at school on little known countries.
She is quite proud of her son’s performance in Chariton. “Unfortunately, there were no other elementary children competing in Chariton. Therefore, for Rowen to participate and compete, he would have to sit in with sixth graders for geography and seventh graders for science,” she said. “These are buzzer-based, Jeopardy-style competitions – speed and accuracy are both important. I thought he would succumb to the pressure or hesitate in answering because he would be intimidated competing against older children, but I didn’t need to worry – he dominated the competition.”
Kristin said in the Geography Bee, Rowen excelled in every round. In Science, he scored just one point less than the seventh grade winner. “Science remains his ‘for fun’ competition, he didn’t even study and came within one point of the seventh grade champion! Because of Rowen’s success, we left Chariton as National and International qualifiers.”
So now the family will be leaving for national competition in Orlando, Florida on June 15, competition with other students from throughout the country in International Geography and Science on June 17-20.
She said qualifying for the International Competition in Burlington, Vermont for a full week in July “was beyond what we ever imagined” and says the family humbly needs support to help sponsor Rowan for the trip, which could cost as much as $5,000. She said a "Rowan Takes on the World” GoFundMe social media page has been created to help or anyone can send a donation to Rowan at 515 N Clay Street, West Liberty, 52776.