What is 'Geobowl'?
SWAAG is a student-centered professional organization, and our events reflect that ethic. On the first evening of every fall SWAAG meeting, students come together and battle at Geobowl. While Geography as a discipline is much more than fodder for quiz bowls, this event is one of the highlights of our annual meetings as it brings together student cohorts, as well as professors from NM, TX, OK, AR, and LA to let loose and have fun. Matches are head-to-head and involve sets of toss-up and team questions. Teams compete in a round-robin tournament format with the top two teams vying for the title in the finals. Individual high scorers can win prize money and then receive the opportunity to compete (paid too!) on behalf of SWAAG at the annual AAG meeting. Teams vie for glory, bragging rights, and trophies. Professors draft questions, judge the answers, and moderate the games. It’s always a lot of fun. Most importantly, students are also provided with pizza or basically a free meal. There you have it!
Students: If you are interested in participating, please do so! It’s easy and there are two ways. You may register as an individual (you are not on a team) or as a team (we like to say "GeoBowl Squad").
Professors/ & Professionals: Please volunteer and help out in some way for the GeoBowl. I know dinner and socializing beckon after that first day of papers, but this event never disappoints. We always need judges, moderators, and scorekeepers and serving as one is a lot of fun. Anyone is welcome to serve as they can and see fit. One requirement: we must have Darren Purcell to at least moderate the finals. Dr. Purcell is the GOAT for SWAAG GeoBowl moderation, period. Lastly, we always need fresh questions, click here to submit toss-up or team questions.
We hope you consider participating in this fall’s SWAAG GeoBowl! For any other questions not answered here, please contact Andy Hilburn, current SWAAG Chair, meeting host, and last year’s GeoBowl head, at ahilburn@tamiu.edu or Michaela Buenemann, this year’s Secretary and current GeoBowl head, at elabuen@nmsu.edu.
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