There\u27s Good News from the Nation\u27s Classrooms

Last May at the finals of the National Geographic Bee held in Washington, DC, Alex Trebeck was getting concerned because he thought that he would be running out of questions for the ten finalists who came from throughout the country. Well, he did have enough, although it was close. In the previous year it took just 80 questions to determine a winner of the Bee, an annual event sponsored by the National Geographic Society in which over five million kids nationwide from grades four through eight compete. In 1999, however, it took 140 questions before a winner was determined. In other words, the contestants answered an additional 60 questions before they were eliminated. This illustrates the continuing success of the Geographic\u27s efforts to improve geography instruction in the schools of this country