2021 - 2022 IAC Bee Program

Tejus K. is a 6th grade student at Sinnott. Tejus qualified for the GeoBee Nationals after winning a 2nd place in IAC NorCal Regional GeoBee competition. Over summer, Tejus attended the IAC GeoBee Nationals in Orlando, Florida and IAC Internationals in Burlington, Vermont. At the international competition, Tejus won Bronze medal in an individual event and Gold and Silver in team events. Tejus also got placed #7 in the GeoBee Nationals Semifinals (top 6 proceed to finals.) He also got placed 9th in USGC written exam (top 10 get recognized.) Tejus says, “It was an awesome experience and super fun and exciting.” Tejus’s mom says, “Thanks to Sinnott PTA! That is how we got introduced to GeoBee program.”

More about the competitions:

Nationals in Orlando, FL was a 5-day event with various written exams and buzzer-based quizzes. There were 570 kids of which 170 were in the elementary division. The buzzer-based quizzes had 8 preliminary rounds, if you cleared those, then you entered the play-offs. Play-offs had Octo finals, quarter finals, semi-finals and finals – all with increasing difficulty, each one being a qualifying round. Competition days were intense and full. An example of Tejus’s day one at the nationals - he had 2 rounds of buzzer-based quizzes, after which he had an hour-long written exam after which he had 2 hours of 4 written exams. In the US Geography Championship at Nationals, which is the written exam, top 10 won awards. Tejus got placed 9th.  In the GeoBee Nationals, which is a buzzer based quiz, Tejus reached all the way until the semi-finals when he lost to the opponent at the last question and got placed #7. Top 6 proceeded to the finals.

The International Geography Championship in Burlington, Vermont was a weeklong Olympics style competitions with Geography as the focus. Kids from UK, Germany, France, Poland, India, Pakistan participated. A big majority of the kids were from USA and represented their state. They had varied kinds of events. 

• Buzzer-based bee comprised of events like East Asian bee, Historical Geography Bee, Visual Geography Bee. 

• Multiple written exams – some country based, some multiple choice where speed was of essence, some testing geographic concepts like population pyramids etc.

• Task forces where students had to present on a particular topic for which they had researched before the start of the competition. Ex: Geographic Factors of the Russia-Ukraine Conflict, Vermont and Climate Change, Rainforest Conservation in Ecuador, and Urban Planning and Gentrification in Burlington. Tejus’s topic was Russia-Ukraine with humanitarian/refugee crisis as his focus area. He had to study the global impact of the war and what the world is doing to help it from a humanitarian crisis perspective. He had to come up with recommendations.

• Geopardy – Geography based Jeopardy game.

• Great Trading game – Kids had to study the economies of U. S. States and Canadian Provinces along the St. Lawrence Seaway. Kids had to understand the global maritime geography, and trade strategy. Tejus used his geographic knowledge and his Pokemon trading hobby to strategize and win a bronze medal here. 

Tejus’s CA team won the Gold medal in Geography bowl. They also won a silver medal in the Hexathlon event which was a combination of 6 different events: crossword, audio quiz, map quiz, multiple choice quiz etc. With that, Tejus came back with all 3 medal categories – Gold, Silver and Bronze. The days started by 8 AM and ended by 10-10:30 PM filled with competitions! The air was super charged with excitement and electric intensity. Tejus loved it all and is looking forward to competing again.