National Geographic 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 national finals air, tape-delayed, on the National Geographic Channel and local PBS stations. The winner of the finals receives a $25,000 scholarship, second place $15,000 and third place $10,000.
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 and Guam), American Samoa and the Department of Defense Dependents Schools.
Procedure
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 gameshow host Alex Trebek.
To determine the ten national finalists, the 100 contestants are split into five groups of 11 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, and the national bee is held over two days (preliminaries on the first day, finals on the second) in late May.
Champions
Of the seventeen National Geographic Bee Champions, sixteen 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.
- 1989 - Jack Staddon
- 1990 - Susannah Batko-Yovino
- State: Pennsylvania
- Grade: Sixth
- Winning Question: Mount Erebus is a volcano on which continent?
- Answer: Antarctica
- Note: Only female champion
- 1991 - David Stillman
- State: Idaho
- Grade: Eighth
- Winning Question: What type of landform is commonly associated with orographic precipitation?
- Answer: Mountain
- Note: Only champion with a perfect score in the finals
- 1992 - Lawson Fite
- State: Washington
- Grade: Eighth
- Winning Question: Many coastal countries have established so-called EEZs—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?
- Answer: Exclusive Economic Zone
- 1993 - Noel Erinjeri
- State: Michigan
- Grade: Eighth
- Winning Question: Tagalog is one of the three main native languages of which island country in Asia?
- Answer: The Philippines
- 1994 - Anders Knospe
- State: Montana
- Grade: Eighth
- Winning Question: The Tagus River roughly divides which European country into two agricultural regions?
- Answer: Portugal
- 1995 - Chris Galeczka
- State: Michigan
- Grade: Eighth
- Winning Question: Pashtu and Dari are the official languages of which mountainous, landlocked country in southwestern Asia?
- Answer: Afghanistan
- 1996 - Seyi Fayanju
- State: New Jersey
- Grade: Seventh
- Winning Question: Name the European co-principality whose heads of state are the President of France and the Bishop of Urgel.
- Answer: Andorra
- 1997 - Alex Kerchner
- State: Washington
- Grade: Seventh
- Winning Question: 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.
- Answer: Singapore
- 1998 - Petko Peev
- State: Michigan
- Grade: Eighth
- Winning Question: More than 80 million people live in the European Union's most populous member country. Name this country.
- Answer: Germany
- 1999 - David Beihl
- State: South Carolina
- Grade: Eighth (homeschooled)
- Winning Question: The condition characterized by unusually cold ocean temperature in the equatorial region of the eastern Pacific Ocean is known by what Spanish name?
- Answer: La Niña
- 2000 - Felix Peng
- State: Connecticut
- Grade: Eighth
- Winning Question: Name two of the three largest sections of Denmark, which include its mainland peninsula and two largest islands
- Answer: Jutland, Sjaelland and Fyn
- 2001 - Kyle Haddad-Fonda
- State: Washington
- Grade: Eighth
- Winning Question: Below the equilibrium line of glaciers there is a region of melting, evaporation, and sublimation. Name this zone.
- Answer: Zone of ablation
- 2002 - Calvin McCarter
- State: Michigan
- Grade: Fifth (homeschooled)
- Winning Question: Lop Nur, a marshy depression at the east end of the Tarim Basin, is a nuclear test site for which country?
- Answer: China (People's Republic)
- Note: Youngest champion
- 2003 - James Williams
- State: Washington
- Grade: Eighth (homeschooled)
- Winning Question: Goa, a state in southwestern India, was a possession of which country until 1961?
- Answer: Portugal
- 2004 - Andrew Wojtanik
- State: Kansas
- Grade: Eighth
- Winning Question: 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?
- Answer: Khyber Pass
- 2005 - Nathan Cornelius
- State: Minnesota
- Grade: Seventh
- Winning Question: Lake Gatún, an artificial lake that constitutes part of the Panama Canal system, was created by damming which river?
- Answer: Chagres River