Local kid knows his geography

Oconee County seventh-grader Pranav Bhandarkar barely missed this chance four years ago, but today will show the world how much he knows about - well, the world - at the 21st annual National Geographic Bee.

Pranav, who attends Malcom Bridge Middle School, will face off this morning against 54 other bright youngsters from across the United States as the official representative of Georgia - he won the state-level Geography Bee in April.

Today's competition in Washington, D.C., will whittle down the slate of geography whizzes to 10 finalists, who advance Wednesday to the championship round moderated by "Jeopardy!" quiz show host Alex Trebek.

The finals will be televised on the National Geographic Channel.

The first-place finisher will receive a $25,000 college scholarship, a free trip to the Galapagos Islands with Trebek and a lifetime membership in the National Geographic Society.

Second- and third-place finishers will receive $15,000 and $10,000 scholarships, respectively.

The National Geographic Society developed the National Geographic Bee in 1989 in response to growing concerns over the lack of geographic knowledge among young people in the United States.

Three years ago, one-third of 18- to 24-year-olds could not locate Louisiana even after Hurricane Katrina, according to a 2006 National Geographic-Roper Public Affairs literacy study. Only four in 10 were able to find Iraq on a map of the Middle East, according to the study.

The geography bee begins with a schoolwide competition for fourth- to eighth-graders. School winners then complete a 100-question, multiple-choice exam, which the National Geographic Society uses to pick state-level competitors.

Each of the past four years, Pranav passed the test to go to the state competition - including his first year, when he placed second in the state. That year, he tripped on a question that asked which country, east of Botswana, had a 70 percent unemployment rate.

The answer was Mozambique, but Pranav said Zimbabwe.

Pranav - whose parents are instructors at the University of Georgia - has focused on a comeback since then, according to Lavonne McPherson, one of his former teachers at Athens Montessori School.

"He was pretty disappointed the second year when he went and did not place at state, but he was able to work through that and go back," McPherson said.

Pranav does well in all subjects, but favors geography because he likes traveling and learning about other cultures, he said.

"Ever since I was little, I've always enjoyed geography," he said. "It gives you the ability to understand and appreciate the world a lot."

At Athens Montessori, teachers nurtured his interest, buying atlases and maps, and assigning him special projects.

At home, Pranav read Newsweek, Time and National Geographic to stay up on current affairs.

"He's well-informed," McPherson said. "He's just all around a really good student. I just got him more and more materials, and he became more and more interested and started reading.

"I would never say I would know as much as he did about geography."

Pranav spent the past few weekends reviewing - but knowing how random the questions might be, he tried not to overburden himself with studying, he said.

"I might just get a really hard question that I don't know," Pranav said. "This whole competition is sort of a luck of the draw."

Rate This Article: - Excellent Good Average Poor Terrible

Comment on "Local kid knows his geography"

Your Name

Your Comments

Verification Code: UPF9YS
Enter Code:

Related News: