LEBANON -- Paul Tribble, an 8th grader at Walter J. Baird Middle School, has been notified by the National Geographic Society that he is one of the semifinalists eligible to compete in the 2011 Tennessee Geographic Bee, sponsored by Google and Plum Creek.  

Paul is the son of John and Leigh Ann Tribble and is a member of the Blue Devil basketball team.

Bees were held in schools with fourth- through eighth-grade students throughout the state to determine each school’s Geographic Bee winner. School-level winners then took a qualifying test, which they submitted to the National Geographic Society. 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 National Geographic Society invited students with the top 100 scores to compete at the state level.

The 2011 Tennessee Geographic Bee will be held at Tennessee State University’s Avon Williams Auditorium at 330 10th Ave. N., Nashville, on Friday, April 1.

The state winner will receive $100, the “Complete National Geographic on DVD” and a trip to Washington, D.C., where he/she will represent Tennessee in the national finals at the National Geographic Society headquarters, May 24-25. 

The first-place national winner will receive a $25,000 college scholarship and lifetime membership in the Society. 

The winner will experience geography firsthand through up-close encounters with the wildlife and landscape of Galapagos.

Travel for the trip is provided by Lindblad Expeditions and National Geographic. For additional information on the National Geographic Bee, visit www.nationalgeographic.com/geobee.