National Geographic Bee
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A 1999 National Geography Bee contestant with his chaperones. |
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A shot before the preliminary rounds of the 1999 National Geography Bee. |
The
National Geographic Bee (previously called the
National Geography Bee) is an annual
geography contest sponsored by the
National Geographic Society. The Bee, held every year since 1989, is open to students in the fourth through eighth grade in participating
American schools.
The fifty states and other entities represented at the national level are all fifty
states,
Puerto Rico, the
U.S. Virgin Islands, U.S. territories in the Pacific (
Northern Mariana Islands,
Guam, and
American Samoa), the
District of Columbia, and the
Department of Defense Dependents Schools.
The winner of each school-level competition takes a written test, and the top one-hundred in each state or territory qualify for the state Bee. Then, the winners of the fifty-five state and territory Bees advance to the national competition. At the national level, after another competition, the top ten contestants qualify for the finals, moderated by
Jeopardy!'s gameshow host
Alex Trebek.
To determine the ten state or territory finalists, the 100 contestants are split into five groups of 20 for a preliminary round. A perfect or near-perfect performance is generally required, and a tiebreaker after the initial round is frequently needed to determine the last finalists.
In the national finals, a contestant is eliminated after two non-answers or incorrect answers. When the field is narrowed to two, those two finalists enter the championship round, in which they are asked the same five questions. The contestant answering the most correctly is the national champion.
School-level bees are held from mid-November to mid-January. All state-level bees are on the same day in late March or early April. The national bee is held over two days (preliminaries on the first day, finals on the second) in late May.
Of the eighteen National Geographic Bee champions, seventeen are male and one is female. Four are from the State of
Michigan, four from the State of
Washington, two from
Kansas, and one each from various other states.
The winner of the 2006 finals received a $25,000 scholarship, second place $15,000, and third place $10,000.
Champions and other top finishers are invited to apply to the four-member U.S. team sent to the biannual
National Geographic World Championship.
| Year | Winner's Name | State | Grade | Winning Question | Answer! Notes | | 1989 | Jack Staddon | Kansas | Eighth | Name the flat intermontane area located at an elevation of about 10,000 feet (3,050 meters) in the central Andes. | Altiplano |
| 1990 | Susannah Batko-Yovino | Pennsylvania | Sixth | Mount Erebus is a volcano on which continent? | Antarctica | Only female champion |
| 1991 | David Stillman | Idaho | Eighth | What type of landform is commonly associated with orographic precipitation? | Mountain | One of only two champions with a perfect score in the finals |
| 1992 | Lawson Fite | Washington | Eighth | Many coastal countries have established so-called EEZsâ€"areas extending 200 nautical miles (370 km) from shore over which countries have sovereign rights for resource exploration. What do the initials EEZ stand for? | Exclusive Economic Zone |
| 1993 | Noel Erinjeri | Michigan | Eighth | Tagalog is one of the three main native languages of which island country in Asia? | The Philippines |
| 1994 | Anders Knospe | Montana | Eighth | The Tagus River roughly divides which European country into two agricultural regions? | Portugal |
| 1995 | Chris Galeczka | Michigan | Eighth | Pashtu and Dari are the official languages of which mountainous, landlocked country in southwestern Asia? | Afghanistan |
| 1996 | Seyi Fayanju | New Jersey | Seventh | Name the European co-principality whose heads of state are the President of France and the Bishop of Urgel. | Andorra | One of only two champions with a perfect score in the finals |
| 1997 | Alex Kerchner | Washington | Seventh | Asia's most densely populated country has about three million people and an area of less than 250 square miles (402 km²). Name this country. | Singapore |
| 1998 | Petko Peev | Michigan | Eighth | More than 80 million people live in the European Union's most populous member country. Name this country. | Germany |
| 1999 | David Beihl | South Carolina | Eighth (homeschooled) | The condition characterized by unusually cold ocean temperature in the equatorial region of the eastern Pacific Ocean is known by what Spanish name? | La Niña |
| 2000 | Felix Peng | Connecticut | Eighth | Name two of the three largest sections of Denmark, which include its mainland peninsula and two largest islands | Jutland, Sjaelland and Fyn |
| 2001 | Kyle Haddad-Fonda | Washington | Eighth | Below the equilibrium line of glaciers there is a region of melting, evaporation, and sublimation. Name this zone. | Zone of ablation |
| 2002 | Calvin McCarter | Michigan | Fifth (homeschooled) | Lop Nur, a marshy depression at the east end of the Tarim Basin, is a nuclear test site for which country? | China (People's Republic) | Youngest champion |
| 2003 | James Williams | Washington | Eighth (homeschooled) | Goa, a state in southwestern India, was a possession of which country until 1961? | Portugal |
| 2004 | Andrew Wojtanik | Kansas | Eighth | Peshawar, a city in the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan, has had strategic importance for centuries because of its location near what historic pass? | Khyber Pass |
| 2005 | Nathan Cornelius | Minnesota | Seventh (homeschooled) | Lake Gatún, an artificial lake that constitutes part of the Panama Canal system, was created by damming which river? | Chagres River |
| 2006 | Bonny Jain | Illinois | Eighth | Name the mountains that extend across much of Wales, from the Irish Sea to the Bristol Channel. | Cambrian Mountains | Placed 14th in 2006 Scripps National Spelling Bee |
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National Geographic Bee official website*
GeoBeeCentral - Unofficial website made by participants of the National Geographic Bee*
GeoBeeCentral discussion boards
