27th National Geographic Bee

The 27th National Geographic Bee was held on May 11–13, 2015 in Washington, District of Columbia.[1] It is sponsored by the National Geographic Society.[2][3] Soledad O'Brien was the host for the second and final time. The winner was Karan Menon of John Adams Middle School in Edison, New Jersey, who won $50,000 in scholarships, a trip for 2 to the Galapagos Islands, and a lifetime membership to the National Geographic Society. The runner-up was Shriya Yarlagadda of Grand Blanc East Middle School in Grand Blanc, Michigan who won a $25,000 scholarship. The Third place winner was Sojas Wagle of Springdale, Arkansas, who won $10,000 in scholarships. Finishing in 4th place was Tejas Badgujar of Pennsylvania. The competition started with the school level rounds, in which more than 5 million students competed in 11,000 schools across the nation. Other students who placed in the top ten include Kapil Nathan of Alabama, Nicholas Monahan of Idaho, Patrick Taylor of Iowa, Abhinav Karthikeyan of Maryland, Lucy Chae of Massachusetts, and Shreyas Varathan of Minnesota. The Florida State Champion, Rishi Nair, became the 2016 National Geographic Bee Champion. The winners of the school bees then took a written qualification test to see who could qualify for the state level competition. The top 100 or so scorers on the qualification test in each state were selected to go for the state championship. The winners of the state championship would then get $100 in cash, a National Geographic 10th Edition Atlas, and the opportunity to represent their state in the National Finals held in Washington, DC.

27th National Geographic Bee
DateMay 11–13, 2015
LocationWashington, D.C.
WinnerKaran Menon
Age14
ResidenceEdison, New Jersey
No. of contestants54
Preceded by26th National Geographic Bee
Followed by28th National Geographic Bee

2015 state representatives

The state representatives from each of the 50 U.S. states, Atlantic territories, Pacific territories, and Department of Defense dependents schools was determined on March 27, 2015 at the state level competitions.[4]

State Name School City/Town Grade Place
 Alabama Kapil Nathan Mount Laurel Elementary School Birmingham 5th T-9th
 Alaska Ben Ng Floyd Dryden Middle School Juneau 7th
 Arizona Cameron Danesh On Track Academy Scottsdale 8th
 Arkansas Sojas Wagle South West Junior High School Springdale 8th 3rd
Puerto Rico United States Virgin Islands Atlantic Territories Christopher Sharpless Antilles School Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands 8th
 California Madhavan Krishnan Sam H. Lawson Middle School Cupertino 6th
 Colorado William Jacob (Jake) Hofgard Louisville Middle School Louisville 7th
 Connecticut Alexander Koutsoukos Middlebrook Middle School Wilton 7th
 Delaware Rohan Kanchana Newark Charter School Newark 6th
Department of Defense Ethan Cooper Menwith Hill Elementary/High School Menwith Hill, United Kingdom 8th
 District of Columbia Jacob Wall British School of Washington District of Columbia 6th
 Florida Rishi Nair Lincoln Magnet School Plant City 5th
 Georgia Vibhav Kanyadan The Walker School Marietta 7th
 Hawaii Mika Ishii Kaimuki Middle School Honolulu 7th
 Idaho Nicholas Monahan Payette Lakes Middle School McCall 6th 7th
 Illinois Alexandru Grindeanu Gower Middle School Burr Ridge 8th
 Indiana Thomas Gatewood Western Middle School Russiaville 8th
 Iowa Patrick Taylor Northwest Junior High School Coralville 7th T-5th
 Kansas Chinmay Patil California Trail Middle School Olathe 7th
 Kentucky Pranav Kanmadikar Meyzeek Middle School Louisville 6th
 Louisiana Ajaya Tummala Caddo Middle Magnet School Shreveport 8th
 Maine Matthew Chase Wells Junior High School Wells 8th
 Maryland Abhinav Karthikeyan Clearspring Elementary School Damascus 6th T-5th
 Massachusetts Inwook (Lucy) Chae Charles E. Brown Middle School Newton Center 7th 8th
 Michigan Shriya Yarlagadda Grand Blanc East Middle School Grand Blanc 6th 2nd
 Minnesota Shreyas Varathan Shakopee Area Catholic School Shakopee 8th T-9th
 Mississippi Ian Espy St. Andrews Episcopal School Ridgeland 8th
 Missouri Nikhil Krishnan Rockwood South Middle School Fenton 7th
 Montana Grace Rembert Sacajawea Middle School Bozeman 7th
 Nebraska Brendan Pennington Prairie Lane Elementary School Omaha 6th
 Nevada Brian Montes Adobe Middle School Elko 8th
 New Hampshire Issac Stearns Kearsarge Regional Middle School North Sutton 7th
 New Jersey Karan Menon John Adams Middle School Edison 8th 1st
 New Mexico Lakshay Sood Manzano Day School Albuquerque 4th
 New York Arnav Patra Heim Middle School Williamsville 7th
 North Carolina Ian Garnto West Alexander Middle School Taylorsville 8th
 North Dakota Sean Ness Valley Middle School Grand Forks 6th
 Ohio Suyash Dixit Shananan Middle School Lewis Center 8th
 Oklahoma Grant Talkington Brink Junior High School Oklahoma City 7th
 Oregon Ashwin Sivakumar Oregon Episcopal School Portland 5th
American Samoa Guam Northern Mariana Islands Pacific Territories Ethan Thomas Storie Bishop Baumgartner Memorial Catholic School Sinajana 8th
 Pennsylvania Tejas Badgujar Hampton Middle School Allison Park 8th 4th
 Rhode Island Eli Fulton Rhode Island of Home Educators (Home School) Rumford 7th
 South Carolina Nicholas Gringat St Anne's School Rockhill 8th
 South Dakota Damian Hierrera Dakota Valley Middle School North Sioux City 8th
 Tennessee John Webster Evangelical Christian School Macon Cordova 7th
 Texas Joseph Afuso Bishop Garriga Middle School Corpus Christi 8th
 Utah Gauri Garg Bear River Charter School North Logan 8th
 Vermont David Liebowitz Weybridge Elementary School Weybridge 6th
 Virginia Alexander Perdue Andrew Lewis Middle School Salem 8th
 Washington Nick Harrington Lakeside Middle School Seattle 8th
 West Virginia Hunter Midcap St. Michael Parrish School Wheeling 6th
 Wisconsin Joshua Frank Fall River School Fall River 7th
 Wyoming Annika Coberly Upton Middle School Upton 8th

Final round

The 10 Finalists in this year's Final round were Nicholas Monahan from Idaho, Karan Menon from New Jersey, Sojas Wagle from Arkansas, Abhinav Karthikeyan from Maryland, Patrick Taylor from Iowa, Lucy Chae from Massachusetts, Kapil Nathan from Alabama, Shreyas Varathan from Minnesota, Shriya Yarlagadda from Michigan, and Tejas Badgujar from Pennsylvania. This years finals had many new changes including a 45-second oral response, a series of 3 questions asked at the US Botanical Gardens, and lightning rounds, where a finalist would get 3 questions in a row, with only 6 seconds to answer each. In one of these rounds, Karan, the state champion of New Jersey was asked "The Mesabi range contains a large deposit of what metal-bearing mineral?" Karan's answer of taconite was originally marked wrong (the given answer was iron ore), but later he would object and prove to the judges that his answer was correct. Shriya Yarlagadda, from Michigan maintained a perfect score throughout most of the competition. In the end, the top 2 students were Karan of New Jersey and Shriya of Michigan. Karan got a perfect score of 7/7 in the championship round, while Shriya only missed the first question. "Mariupol, a city located at the mouth of the Kalmius River, is located on what sea that is an arm of the Black Sea?" Answer: "Sea of Azov." The final question that clinched the win for Karan was "If completed, the proposed Grand Inga Dam would become the world’s largest hydropower plant. This dam would be built near Inga Falls on which African river?" Answer: "Congo River." The Third place winner was Sojas Wagle of Springdale, Arkansas, who won $10,000 in scholarships. Finishing in 4th place was Tejas Badgujar of Allison Park, Pennsylvania.

References
  1. "National Geographic Bee - National Geographic". National Geographic Society. Archived from the original on 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2015-03-20.
  2. "6th grader to represent Charles City at UNI Geography Bee | KCHA News". Archived from the original on 2015-03-21. Retrieved 2015-03-20.
  3. "Skykomish student a state semifinalist in National Geographic Bee - Monroe Monitor". Archived from the original on 2015-05-21. Retrieved 2015-03-20.
  4. "Middle-schoolers advance to state geography bee semi-finals". ThisWeek Community News.
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