29th National Geographic Bee
29th National Geographic Bee | |
---|---|
Date | May 15–17, 2017 |
Location | Washington, D.C. |
Winner | Pranay Varada |
Age | 14 |
Residence | Irving, Texas |
No. of contestants | 54 |
Preceded by | 28th National Geographic Bee |
Followed by | 30th National Geographic Bee |
The 29th annual National Geographic Bee was held in Washington, D.C. It was sponsored by the National Geographic Society. The State Bees were held on March 31, 2017, where the 54 finalists were determined.[1] The 2017 Champion, Pranay Varada, received a $50,000 college scholarship, a lifetime membership to the National Geographic Society, and an all-expenses-paid Lindblad expedition for two to the Galápagos Islands aboard the new National Geographic Endeavour ll.[2]
2017 State Champions[]
On March 31, 2017, the National Geographic State Bees were held across the 50 states, Washington, D.C., the Atlantic Territories, the Pacific Territories, and the Department of Defense. Fifty-four State or Territory level Champions were determined.[2]
State | Name | School | City/Town | Grade | Place |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Alabama | Jason DiRusso | Louis Pizitz Middle School | Vestavia Hills | 8th | |
Alaska | Andres Arias | Anchorage | 8th | ||
Arizona | Aditya Narayanan | Scottsdale | 5th | ||
Arkansas | Denis Carranza | Rogers | 7th | ||
Atlantic Territories | Matthew Haughton | St. Thomas, VI | 8th | ||
California | Ahilan Eraniyan | Diablo Vista Middle School | Danville | 6th | T-7th |
Colorado | Henry Halgren | Fort Collins | 6th | ||
Connecticut | William Foster | Middlefield | 8th | ||
Delaware | Rohan Kanchana | Newark Charter School | Newark | 8th | T-7th |
Department of Defense | Connor Buchheit | Wiesbaden, Germany | 8th | ||
District of Columbia | Max Garon | Sidwell Friends Middle School | Washington | 7th | T-7th |
Florida | Jacob Silver | Ft. Myers | 6th | ||
Georgia | Vishal Sareddy | Riverwatch Middle School | Suwanee | 7th | |
Hawaii | Logan Kakugawa | Hawaii Baptist Academy | Honolulu | 8th | |
Idaho | Nicholas Monahan | McCall | 8th | 4th | |
Illinois | Sahan Yalavarthi | Buffalo Grove | 7th | ||
Indiana | Dylan Schutte | Brookville | 8th | ||
Iowa | Grant Pedersen | Eldon | 7th | ||
Kansas | Sathvik Kasarabada | California Trail Middle School | Olathe | 7th | |
Kentucky | Evan Winkler | Lexington | 8th | ||
Louisiana | Issac Jabaley | Lusher Charter School | New Orleans | 6th | |
Maine | Joseph Luchsinger | Berwick Academy | South Berwick | 7th | |
Maryland | Nabhoneel Sil Upadhyay | Kingsview Middle School | Germantown | 8th | |
Massachusetts | Theodore Z. Batty | Scituate | 6th | ||
Michigan | Peter Deegan-Krause | Ferndale | 6th | ||
Minnesota | Lucas Eggers | Minnetonka | 8th | 6th | |
Mississippi | Edmund Doerksen | Oxford | 8th | ||
Missouri | Rohan Rao | Gentry Middle School | Columbia | 7th | |
Montana | Ian Williams | Missoula | 8th | ||
Nebraska | Brendan Pennington | Prairie Lane Elementary School | Omaha | 8th | |
Nevada | Maia Marshall | Las Vegas | 8th | ||
New Hampshire | Abhinav Govindaraju | Bedford | 7th | 10th | |
New Jersey | Veda Bhattaram | Montville | 7th | 3rd | |
New Mexico | Lakshay Sood | Albuquerque Academy | Albuquerque | 6th | |
New York | Tayler Anderson | Nyack | 7th | ||
North Carolina | Max Dyer | Phoenix Academy | High Point | 6th | |
North Dakota | Krishna Kamalakannan | Fargo | 7th | ||
Ohio | Saket Pochiraju | Lewis Center | 7th | ||
Oklahoma | Antonino Libarnes | Ardmore | 5th | ||
Oregon | Ashwin Sivakumar | Oregon Episcopal School | Portland | 7th | |
Pacific Territories | Joanah Jimenez | Marianas Baptist Academy | Saipan, MP | 7th | |
Pennsylvania | Eshan Singh | Yardley | 7th | ||
Rhode Island | Isaiah Suchman | Providence | 8th | ||
South Carolina | Connor Fraley | Williams Middle School | Florence | 8th | |
South Dakota | Owen Fink | Bridgewater | 6th | ||
Tennessee | Simeon Betapudi | Evangelical Christian School | Cordova | 7th | |
Texas | Pranay Varada | DeWitt Perry Middle School | Carrollton | 8th | Champion |
Utah | Ankit Garg | Logan | 7th | ||
Vermont | Anshuta Beeram | South Burlington | 6th | ||
Virginia | Anish Susarla | Belmont Ridge Middle School | Leesburg | 6th | 5th |
Washington | Arjun Nathan | Pine Lake Middle School | Sammamish | 8th | |
West Virginia | Hunter Midcap | Wheeling | 8th | ||
Wisconsin | Thomas Wright | University School of Milwaukee | Milwaukee | 8th | 2nd |
Wyoming | Preston Buehler | Afton | 7th |
Preliminary Rounds[]
The Preliminary Competition was held on Monday, May 15, 2017.[2] It consisted of two parts: a written part and an oral part worth 16 points total. In the written part, contestants were asked to write a sentence about why preserving oceans is important, identify places on a map that had been part of National Geographic's "pristine seas" project, and write an paragraph about which place needed to have steps taken for its preservation first: The Rio de la Plata estuary, the Sundarbans, or the Great Barrier Reef. It was graded out of six points total. The oral part consisted of ten rounds about world geography and National Geographic Explorers. All 54 State Champions participated, and after a tiebreaker ten finalists were determined:
- Ahilan Eraniyan- from California
- Rohan Kanchana- from Delaware
- Max Garon- from District of Columbia
- Nicholas Monahan- from Idaho
- Lucas Eggers- from Minnesota
- Abhinav Govindaraju- from New Hampshire
- Veda Bhattaram- from New Jersey
- Pranay Varada- from Texas
- Anish Susarla- from Virginia
- Thomas Wright- from Wisconsin
Final Rounds[]
The Final Competition was held on Wednesday, May 17, 2017. The top 10 Finalists out of the 54 State Champions participated. Humorist, journalist, and actor Mo Rocca moderated the Competition for the second year in a row. The Champion was Pranay Varada of Texas. Thomas Wright of Wisconsin came second, and Veda Bhattaram of New Jersey came third. The GeoChallenge for the top three was about a new home country for the Maldivian people if their country becomes flooded after sea level rises. The choices were Indonesia, Turkey, and the Solomon Islands, in order of best to worst answer. In fourth place was Nicholas Monahan from Idaho. The fifth place finisher was Anish Susarla of Virginia, and Lucas Eggers of Minnesota came in sixth. Tying for seventh place were Rohan Kanchana of Delaware, Ahilan Eraniyan of California, and Max Garon of D.C. They were tied with Lucas Eggers, but in the tiebreaker question, asking for the distance between Washington D.C. and London, they were eliminated after Eggers guessed closer to the correct answer than them and he moved on. In tenth place was Abhinav Govindaraju of New Hampshire. The first eliminations took place after round 5, a lightning round, where four left the competition. The next three eliminations were after round 9, another lightning round.
References[]
- ^ "National Geographic Bee". National Geographic Society. Retrieved 19 Feb 2017.
- ^ a b c "National Geographic Society Newsroom". National Geographic Society Newsroom.
- 2017 in Washington, D.C.
- 2017 in education
- May 2017 events in the United States
- National Geographic Bee