EDUCATION REPORT
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June 6, 2002: Geography Competition
By Jerilyn Watson
This is the VOA Special English Education Report.
The National Geographic Society is a private organization that studies and explores the world. In nineteen-
eighty-eight, the Society did a study of what people knew about geography. The results showed that Americans
knew less about places on the Earth than did other people around the world. So the National Geographic Society
started an education campaign to improve knowledge about geography.
One part of the campaign was a geography competition for school children. Since nineteen-eighty-nine, young
American students have competed for the National Geographic championship.
Final judging of this year’s competition was held in May in Washington, D.C. The youngest person in the
National Geographic competition won the event. Calvin McCarter of Jenison, Michigan, won twenty-fivethousand
dollars to attend college.
Calvin will have to wait a while to start university studies, however. He is only ten years old. He defeated nine
older students in the final event of the geography competition. An estimated five-million students took part in
earlier competitions at their schools and at state contests.
Calvin won by correctly saying that the Lop Nur nuclear test center is in China. He does not attend school. His
mother teaches him at home. Eleven others taking part in the final event of the National Geographic competition
also study at home.
The second-place winner was Matthew Russell of Bradford, Pennsylvania. He won
fifteen-thousand dollars for college. Erik Miller of Kent, Washington won third
place and ten-thousand dollars for college. Matthew and Erik are both fourteen years
old.
The winners answered a number of questions like this one: In what country are the
rivers called Churchill, Slave and Peace? The answer is Canada. Or, name the two
remaining republics of Yugoslavia. The answer is Serbia and Montenegro. Or,
which country controlled Papua New Guinea before it became independent in
Nineteen-Seventy-Five? The answer is Australia.
The final of the National Geographic competition was broadcast on television. Some adults who watched said
they wished they knew half as much about geography as the children did.
This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson.
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(Picture - National Geographic
Society) |