San Carlos Kid Makes Geography Bee Finals in D.C.

Washington D.C. - Tuvya Bergson-Michelson, a fourth grader at the Nueva School and San Carlos resident, will be representing California in the finals of the National Geographic Bee after a perfect performance in today’s preliminary national round.

 “I feel excited, but I also feel glad for everyone who had the privilege to be here,” Tuvya, 10, said.

 Tuvya and nine other students will be competing to win a $25,000 college scholarship, a trip to the Galàpagos Islands, lifetime membership in the National Geographic Society and the title of National Geographic Bee Champion.

 The preliminary competition had nine rounds, each with a different theme, such as cultural geography, geography of current events, physical geography and UNESCO world heritage sites.

Tuvya—the only fourth-grader to make it to nationals—was one of only four students who answered each of their nine questions correctly, automatically securing him a spot in the finals. Eleven students answered eight out of nine questions correctly, so a tie-breaker round had to be held to determine the last six finalists.

 Among the questions Tuvya aced were “In February 2011, restoration began on ten silent films from the early 1900s that were thought to have been lost until the Boris Yeltsin Presidential Library gave copies to the United States. The library is in a city southwest of Lake Ladoga in what country?” (the answer was Russia) and “Which surface would have a higher albedo value—asphalt or fresh snow?” (the answer was fresh snow).

 After finishing the preliminary round, Tuvya said he was pleased with how he performed in the competition.

 Tuvya said geography is one of his favorite subjects along with politics and history. Both his parents accompanied him to D.C. for the competition and although Tuvya has already been to D.C. once before, he was excited about seeing new things, like the Newseum, a recently-opened museum dedicated to journalism.

 The National Geographic Bee is an annual contest that tests the geographic knowledge of American fourth- to eighth-graders. Today, 54 state-level champions gathered in Washington D.C. to try to earn a spot in the finals, which will be held tomorrow at the National Geographic Society’s headquarters and will be moderated by “Jeopardy!” host Alex Trebek.

 In order to make it to the national preliminaries, students had to win their individual school’s contest, finish within the top 100 in their state on a written qualifying test and win their state-wide competition.

Tuvya will be competing against students from Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Massachusetts, South Dakota, Texas, and Utah in the finals tomorrow.

 National Geographic Channel will be airing a four-part series covering this year’s National Geographic Bee from Monday, June 13 through Thursday, June 16 at 6:30 p.m.