News and Culture

Set your calendars, folks because Alex Trebek is going to host the Finals for the National Geographic Bee this May 22-23.

Fifty-five kids ranging from 10 to 14 years old will compete in Washington D.C. for a $25,000 college scholarship and a lifetime subscription to National Geographic.

And of course they’ll make you feel stupid for not knowing the name of the mountains that extend from the Irish Sea to the Bristol Channel. (*See below for answer)

Sound like fun?

Michael Ling, the 12-year-old, two time Oregon champ from Beaverton, thinks so. He plans to spend a week in D.C. and win top prize this time. Last year he came in 11th place.

“I watch Jeopardy all the time,” he says. “I think my mom has me registered for it.”

But Ling isn’t overly excited about seeing Trebek. “Yeah, I’ve met him before,” he says. “I’ve already got his autograph.”

While he says he gets most of the geography bee questions right all the time, he has had a couple of “real stumpers.”

“What is the financial hub of Germany?” he asked me.

I quickly relived that terrible moment of a childhood geography bee when I choked on a question about the river that divides the U.S. and Mexico. (Come on, folks! **Answer below)

“Um, Berlin?”

“Nope. It’s Frankfurt,” he said. “I thought it was Hamburg.”

Ling is still light-years ahead of the rest of the country, though. A National Geographic-Roper Public Affairs Geographic Literacy Study last year showed that 6 out of 10 Americans polled from ages 18 to 24 couldn’t find Iraq on a map of the Middle East, and nearly one half couldn’t find the Mississippi on a map of the U.S.

Ling and fellow bee finalists climbed to the top out of a pool of nearly 5 million other kids. The bee will be televised on the the National Geographic Channel and public TV stations. Check nationalgeographic.com for listings.

Still think you’re smarter than a fifth grader and a good chunk of your countrymen? Take the sample test from last year.

Answers:
* The Cambrian Mountains
** The Rio Grande

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