27th National Geographic Bee


The 27th National Geographic Bee was held on May 11–13, 2015 in Washington, District of Columbia. It is sponsored by the National Geographic Society. 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.

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.
StateNameSchoolCity/TownGradePlace
Kapil NathanMount Laurel Elementary SchoolBirmingham5thT-9th
Ben NgFloyd Dryden Middle SchoolJuneau7th-
Cameron DaneshOn Track AcademyScottsdale8th-
Sojas WagleSouth West Junior High SchoolSpringdale8th3rd
Atlantic TerritoriesChristopher SharplessAntilles SchoolSaint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands8th-
Madhavan KrishnanSam H. Lawson Middle SchoolCupertino6th-
William Jacob HofgardLouisville Middle SchoolLouisville7th-
Alexander KoutsoukosMiddlebrook Middle SchoolWilton7th-
Rohan KanchanaNewark Charter SchoolNewark6th-
Department of DefenseEthan CooperMenwith Hill Elementary/High School Menwith Hill, United Kingdom8th-
Jacob WallBritish School of WashingtonDistrict of Columbia6th-
Rishi NairLincoln Magnet SchoolPlant City5th-
Vibhav KanyadanThe Walker SchoolMarietta7th-
Mika IshiiKaimuki Middle SchoolHonolulu7th-
Nicholas MonahanPayette Lakes Middle SchoolMcCall6th7th
Alexandru GrindeanuGower Middle SchoolBurr Ridge8th-
Thomas GatewoodWestern Middle SchoolRussiaville8th-
Patrick TaylorNorthwest Junior High SchoolCoralville7thT-5th
Chinmay PatilCalifornia Trail Middle SchoolOlathe7th-
Pranav KanmadikarMeyzeek Middle SchoolLouisville6th-
Ajaya TummalaCaddo Middle Magnet SchoolShreveport8th-
Matthew ChaseWells Junior High SchoolWells8th-
Abhinav KarthikeyanClearspring Elementary SchoolDamascus6thT-5th
Inwook ChaeCharles E. Brown Middle SchoolNewton Center7th8th
Shriya YarlagaddaGrand Blanc East Middle SchoolGrand Blanc6th2nd
Shreyas VarathanShakopee Area Catholic SchoolShakopee8thT-9th
Ian EspySt. Andrews Episcopal SchoolRidgeland8th-
Nikhil KrishnanRockwood South Middle SchoolFenton7th-
Grace RembertSacajawea Middle SchoolBozeman7th-
Brendan PenningtonPrairie Lane Elementary SchoolOmaha6th-
Brian MontesAdobe Middle SchoolElko8th-
Issac StearnsKearsarge Regional Middle SchoolNorth Sutton7th-
Karan MenonJohn Adams Middle SchoolEdison8th1st
Lakshay SoodManzano Day SchoolAlbuquerque4th-
Arnav PatraHeim Middle SchoolWilliamsville7th-
Ian GarntoWest Alexander Middle SchoolTaylorsville8th-
Sean NessValley Middle SchoolGrand Forks6th-
Suyash DixitShananan Middle SchoolLewis Center8th-
Grant TalkingtonBrink Junior High SchoolOklahoma City7th-
Ashwin SivakumarOregon Episcopal SchoolPortland5th-
Pacific TerritoriesEthan Thomas StorieBishop Baumgartner Memorial Catholic SchoolSinajana8th-
Tejas BadgujarHampton Middle SchoolAllison Park8th4th
Eli FultonRhode Island of Home Educators Rumford7th-
Nicholas GringatSt Anne's SchoolRockhill8th-
Damian HierreraDakota Valley Middle SchoolNorth Sioux City8th-
John WebsterEvangelical Christian School MaconCordova7th-
Joseph AfusoBishop Garriga Middle SchoolCorpus Christi8th-
Gauri GargBear River Charter SchoolNorth Logan8th-
David LiebowitzWeybridge Elementary SchoolWeybridge6th-
Alexander PerdueAndrew Lewis Middle SchoolSalem8th-
Nick HarringtonLakeside Middle SchoolSeattle8th-
Hunter MidcapSt. Michael Parrish SchoolWheeling6th-
Joshua FrankFall River SchoolFall River7th-
Annika CoberlyUpton Middle SchoolUpton8th-

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, Shreyas Varathan from Minnesota, 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, 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.