Stentor Danielson
National Geographic News (www.nationalgeographic.com/news)
May 22, 2002
Calvin McCarter, a homeschooled student from near
Grand Rapids, Michigan, won the 2002 National
Geographic Bee Wednesday at National Geographic
Society Headquarters in Washington, D.C. At ten
years old, Calvin was the youngest competitor,
beating students who were making their second and
third appearances in the finals.
Second place went to Matthew Russell of Bradford,
Pennsylvania, while third was taken by Erik Miller of
Kent, Washington. Calvin received a U.S. $25,000
college scholarship and a lifetime membership to the
National Geographic Society. Matthew and Erik will
receive $15,000 and $10,000 scholarships,
respectively. The other finalists will get $500 each.
"The money's nice," Calvin said after the
competition. "I just try to relax" while answering
questions.
In the final round, Calvin and Matthew were both
asked the same five questions. They were tied with one
wrong answer each before the final question, which
asked which country uses Lop Nur, a marshy
depression at the eastern end of the Tarim Basin, as a
nuclear test site. Calvin correctly identified China,
while Matthew guessed France.
"I'm in a daze right now," Matthew said. He came in
tenth in the competition two years ago, so he was
happy to have done so much better this year.
In the final round of regular competition, with three
contestants left, Calvin answered incorrectly while Erik
Miller knew that shadow puppets were popular in
Indonesia but did not give the answer until just after
time ran out. In the tiebreaker, Calvin correctly said
that the Kamchatka Peninsula separated the Bering Sea
from the Sea of Okhotsk, but Erik did not write the
complete answer.
"I was pretty nervous" during the tiebreaker, Calvin
said, but afterward "I was a little relaxed because I knew
at least I would be getting 15,000 [U.S. dollars]."
At the beginning of the competition, the contestants
had a chance to chat with host Alex Trebek. Calvin
talked about his stamp-collecting hobby. His favorite is
a cold war stamp from the Soviet republic of
Byelorussia (now the independent country of Belarus).
Matthew told Trebek about a prank pulled on him
earlier in the year. Someone filled his locker with
hundreds of Ping-Pong balls, which fell out when he
opened it. "I probably did something to provoke that,"
he said.
If he could be anyone, Erik said he would be Keanu
Reeves, "because I couldn't think of any good, honest,
famous people."
National Geographic President John M. Fahey, Jr.,
called the Bee "our favorite event of the whole year"
and a "cornerstone of this organization's commitment
to geography education."
Trebek commented on the impressive amount that the
competitors knew about geography as he cautioned
audience members not to mouth or say answers during
the competition. "I have looked over the material, and
I think that most of the time you will be wrong," he
joked.
The other finalists competing today were Isaiah P. Hess
of Colorado, Aaron Kiersh of Connecticut, Ryan J.
Felix of the Department of Defense Schools, Benjamin
S. Detrixhe of Kansas, Nathaniel R. Mattison of New
York, Alexander Taylor Smith of North Carolina, and
John T. Rice of North Dakota.
The 2002 National Geographic Bee finals air on the
National Geographic Channel in the United States at 6
p.m. ET/3 p.m. PT, May 22, 2002. The finals will air
later on public television stations, produced by
Maryland Public Television. Check local listings for
details.
This year's Bee was dedicated to Joe Ferguson and Ann
Judge, National Geographic staff members who were
killed on September 11.
Sample questions from this year's National
Geographic Bee finals (answers follow):
1) The Churchill, Slave, and Peace Rivers are in what
country?
2) Name the two remaining constituent republics of
Yugoslavia.
3) Name the only country in Southeast Asia not
colonized by a European power.
4) Name the ethnically distinct region of northern
France that was settled by Celtic people.
5) Lake Assad, created by a major hydroelectric dam, is
located on which river?
6) Which country administered Papua New Guinea
prior to its independence in 1975?
7) St. Petersburg is located on the delta of the Neva
River where it empties into what gulf?
8) What term describes the drainage pattern on a cinder
cone volcano such as Mount Etna?
9) On May 20, East Timor officially gained
independence after claiming sovereignty from
Indonesia since 1975. Name the capital of this new
country.
10) Pakistan's largest province has the country's smallest
provincial population. Name this province.
Answers: 1. Canada. 2. Serbia and Montenegro. 3.
Thailand. 4. Brittany. 5. The Euphrates. 6. Australia.
7. The Gulf of Finland. 8. Radial. 9. Dili. 10.
Baluchistan.
Bee champion Calvin McCarter won a U.S. $25,000 scholarship for college and lifetime membership to the National Geographic Society. He received his prizes from Society President John Fahey (center) and Chairman Gilbert Grosvenor.
Photograph by Mark Christmas
Watch an archived Webcast of
the 2002 Bee: Go>>