30th National Geographic Bee
30th National Geographic Bee | |
---|---|
Date | May 20-23, 2018 |
Location | Washington, D.C. |
Winner | Venkat Ranjan |
Age | 13 |
Residence | San Ramon, California |
No. of contestants | 54 |
Preceded by | 29th National Geographic Bee |
Followed by | 31st National Geographic Bee |
The 30th annual National Geographic Bee were held in Washington, D.C. It is sponsored by the National Geographic Society. The State Bees were held on April 6, where the 54 finalists will be determined.
State Bees
On April 6, 2018, 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. In 2018, the prize for winning the state bee has been raised, as $200 is now given to the winner instead of $100, the old prize. The winners have also received a National Geographic Visual Atlas of the World, Second Edition. Second and third place winners received $150 and $100, respectively. The state preliminary rounds (there were 8 total) consisted of rounds about U.S. geography, international geography, current events, national birds, protecting the environment, Weird but True, and a “GeoChallenge”. The GeoChallenge was a True/False round where a statement would be made about a U.S. state’s population, GDP, or size, comparing it to another country, and the student would have to say if it was True or False. For example, one question was “Virginia has a higher GDP than Portugal, True or False?”-the answer is true.
State | Name | School | City/Town | Grade | Place |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Christian Martin | Echols Middle School | Northport | 8th | T-30th | |
Riley Gross | Ocean View Elementary School | Anchorage | 6th | T-45th | |
Gayatri Kaimal | BASIS Tucson North School | Tucson | 7th | T-4th | |
Wesley Bonner | Lake Hamilton Junior High School | Hot Springs | 8th | T-34th | |
Diego Curet | St. John’s School | San Juan | 8th | T-53rd | |
Venkat Ranjan | Windemere Ranch Middle School | San Ramon | 8th | 1st | |
Alexander Daniels | Seoul Am Middle School | Seoul | 7th | T-12th | |
Garrett Fleischmann | Stargate Middle School | Thornton | 7th | T-22nd | |
James Leone | Middlesex Middle School | Darien | 8th | T-17th | |
Jeremiah Rayban | Cab Calloway School of the Arts | Wilmington | 7th | T-24th | |
Max Garon | Sidwell Friends Middle School | Washington | 8th | T-12th | |
Kaylan Patel | Windermere Preparatory School | Windermere | 6th | T-17th | |
Vishal Sareddy | Riverwatch Middle School | Suwanee | 8th | 3rd | |
William Chen | Aikahi Elementary | Kailua | 6th | T-38th | |
Vincent Giordano | Lowell Scott Middle School | Boise | 8th | T-42nd | |
Ty Jones | Crestwood School | Paris | 8th | T-38th | |
Jonathon Elliott | Griffith Middle School | Griffith | 7th | T-30th | |
Kavya Kalathur | Pleasant Valley Junior High School | LeClaire | 8th | T-17th | |
Wyatt Boyd | Hocker Grove Middle School | Shawnee Mission | 7th | T-24th | |
Case W. Grillot | Highlands Middle School | Fort Thomas | 8th | T-24th | |
Andrew Minagar | Caddo Middle School | Shreveport | 7th | T-34th | |
Colin Aponte | Hancock Co. Area Homeschoolers | Blue Hill | 8th | T-42nd | |
Alan Zhang | Mount View Middle School | Marriottsville | 8th | T-45th | |
Atreya Mallanna | Joseph Estabrook Elementary School | Lexington | 5th | 7th | |
Paarth Sharma | Moorsbridge Elementary School | Portage | 5th | T-12th | |
Nicholas Peterson | St. John Baptist School | New Brighton | 8th | T-24th | |
Jacob Holland | Long Beach Middle School | Long Beach | 8th | T-38th | |
Jackson Cooper | Christ The King School | University City | 7th | T-45th | |
Caleb Mark | Yellowstone County Home Educators | Billings | 8th | T-53rd | |
Quentin Bauer | Central Middle School | Omaha | 7th | T-45th | |
Emmanuel Gayton-Vargas | Carson Valley Middle School | Gardnerville | 7th | T-45th | |
Sean Cheng | Cooperative Middle School | Stratham | 8th | 10th | |
Anoushka Buddhikot | Bridgewater-Raritan Middle School | Bridgewater | 8th | 2nd | |
Lakshay Sood | Albuquerque Academy | Albuquerque | 7th | T-12th | |
Nicholas Sarris | West Hollow Middle School | Melville | 8th | T-45th | |
Jonathan Song | Salem Middle School | Apex | 8th | 6th | |
Krishna Kamalakannan | Discovery Middle School | Fargo | 8th | 11th | |
Saket Pochiraju | Orange Middle School | Lewis Center | 8th | T-8th | |
Dyllon Wheeler | Epic Charter Schools | Oklahoma City | 8th | T-45th | |
Ashwin Sivakumar | Oregon Episcopal School | Portland | 8th | T-4th | |
Napu Mesa Blas | Luis P. Untalan Middle School | Barrigada | 7th | T-34th | |
Arnab Sircar | Charles F Patton Middle School | Kennett Square | 8th | T-17th | |
Maximus Terra | Alan Shawn Feinstein Middle School | Coventry | 8th | T-38th | |
Sam Henshaw | Moultrie Middle School | Mt. Pleasant | 7th | T-22nd | |
Owen Fink | Bridgewater-Emery School | Bridgewater | 7th | T-34th | |
Aditya Narayanan | Riverdale Elementary School | Germantown | 6th | T-30th | |
Nihar Janga | Canyon Ridge Middle School | Austin | 7th | T-8th | |
Felix Keil | Salt Lake Arts Academy | Salt Lake City | 8th | T-17th | |
Mary Fowler | Eastern Vermont Homeschooler | Hartland | 7th | T-45th | |
Caleb Hines | Ashburn Homeschoolers | Ashburn | 8th | T-24th | |
Ihsan Lishar | Spiritridge Elementary School | Bellevue | 5th | T-42nd | |
Joss Poteet | Wildwood Middle School | Shenandoah Junction | 7th | T-24th | |
Hansen Jin | Kromrey Middle School | Middleton | 8th | 16th | |
Preston Buehler | Star Valley Middle School | Afton | 8th | T-30th |
Preliminary Rounds
The 54 state champions competed in the preliminary rounds held from May 21-22, 2018. This part of the contest consisted of 10 oral rounds as well as a written portion.
After the preliminary rounds, ten competitors advanced to the championship round. These competitors were:
Sean Cheng, New Hampshire 19/20 (10/10 + 9/10)
Gayatri Kaimal, Arizona 18/20 (10/10 + 8/10)
Venkat Ranjan, California 18/20 (9/10 + 9/10)
Atreya Mallanna, Massachusetts 18/20 (10/10 + 8/10)
Anoushka Buddhikot, New Jersey 18/20 (10/10 + 8/10)
Jonathan Song, North Carolina 18/20 (8/10 + 10/10)
Saket Pochiraju, Ohio 18/20 (9/10 + 9/10)
Vishal Sareddy, Georgia 17/20 (8/10 + 9/10)
Ashwin Sivakumar, Oregon 17/20 (8/10 + 9/10)
Nihar Janga, Texas 17/20 (10/10 + 7/10)
- Krishna Kamalakannan, North Dakota also finished with 17 out of 20 points was eliminated by a tiebreaker test the students had taken specifically for the purpose of breaking ties.
Final Rounds
The top 10 contestants with the highest scores in the preliminary rounds was held May 23, 2018. Venkat Ranjan from California was the champion, with Anoushka Buddhikot from New Jersey coming 2nd, and Vishal Sareddy from Georgia placing third. Once the top three had been decided, Sareddy, Ranjan and Buddhikot were asked another "Geochallenge Question." They were asked to choose the best location for a new river clean-up effort. They were asked to choose from the Rhine River, Yangtze River and Niger River. (Yangtze was the correct answer.) After the responses were scored, Buddhikot and Ranjan advanced to the championship round, which was played in sudden death format. The first question: "What country borders the Wetar and Omboi Straits?" was answered correctly (East Timor) by both contestants. Then, a second question: "Lebanon has a population most similar to what South American country?" was answered correctly by Ranjan (Paraguay) and he was declared the winner.
References
Preceded by 29th National Geographic Bee |
30th National Geographic Bee May 20-23, 2018 |
Succeeded by 31st National Geographic Bee |