Photograph by Rebecca Hale/National Geographic Students from Team Pioneers from Epiphany Stars Homeschool in St. Louis, Mo., present their National Geographic GeoChallenge solution. Team Pioneers placed second overall in the 2019 National Geographic GeoChallenge.
Photograph by Rebecca Hale/National Geographic Students from Team Bayou Protectors from St. Francis Episcopal School in Houston, Tex., present their National Geographic GeoChallenge solution. The Bayou Protectors came in third place in the National Geographic GeoChallenge competition.
Photograph by Mark Thiessen/National Geographic Rishi Kumar draws his answer to the new Mapmaker round of the 2019 National Geographic GeoBee finals. Rishi placed third in the 2019 National Geographic GeoBee.
Photograph by Mark Thiessen/National Geographic After an intense championship round with five tiebreaker questions, Nihar Janga, an 8th-grader at Canyon Ridge Middle School in Austin, Texas, took top honors at the 31st annual National Geographic GeoBee. The grand prize for the 2019 GeoChallenge was awarded to The Navigators team from Flushing Christian School in Flushing, New York, including Victor Jimenez (5th grade), Alex Jun (5th), Jeremiah Pierre (5th), and Natanel Rozic (5th).
The 2019 Geo Championships mark the culmination of the 2018-2019 National Geographic GeoBee and National Geographic GeoChallenge student competitions. This event is part of National Geographic’s mission to teach students about the world and how it works, with the goal of empowering the next generation of geographers, scientists, conservationists and educators—the National Geographic Explorers and changemakers of tomorrow.
This year’s GeoBee Champion is Nihar Janga, an 8th grader from Canyon Ridge Middle School in Austin, Texas. This year’s GeoChallenge Champion team is The Navigators from Flushing Christian School in New York, New York, composed of Victor Jimenez (5th grade), Alex Jun (5th grade), Jeremiah Pierre (5th grade) and Natanel Rozic (5th grade). The Navigators built a model of a device that uses filters to collect plastic debris in order to clean up the Hudson River.