News Bites - National Geographic Kids

Rahul Nagvekar, a 8th grader from Texas, won the 2012 National Geographic Bee today at National Geographic headquarters in Washington, D.C. Nagvekar received a $25,000 college scholarship, a lifetime membership in the National Geographic Society, and a trip to the Galapagos Islands! Nagvekar is the third GeoBee champion from Texas in the past four years.

Watch the tense final moments of the competition, with the questions asked by "Jeopardy!" host Alex Trebek.



Watch last year's final question on News Bites.

Learn more about the National Geographic Bee.

Do you have what it takes to compete in the GeoBee? Quiz Your Noodle and find out!

Fifty-four state-level winners matched wits in the National Geographic Bee preliminary round on Tuesday, May 22. Here are the 10 competitors that came out on top:

Raghav Ranga, Arizona
Varun Mahadevan, California
Anthony Stoner, Louisiana
Adam Rusak, Maryland
Karthik Karnik, Massachusetts
Gopi Ramanathan, Minnesota
Neelam Sandhu, New Hampshire
Rahul Nagvekar, Texas
Anthony Cheng, Utah
Vansh Jain, Wisconsin

The winner of the National Geographic Bee will win a $25,000 college scholarship, lifetime membership in the National Geographic Society, and a trip to the Galápagos Islands. Watch them compete in the final round on Thursday, May 24, at 8 p.m. ET/PT on the National Geographic Channel and Nat Geo WILD.

Learn more about the National Geographic Bee.

Do you have what it takes to compete in the GeoBee? Quiz Your Noodle and find out!


Photograph by Rebecca Hale

The finalists in the 2012 National Geographic Bee arrive at National Geographic headquarters this week for the finals! Every year, thousands of schools participate in the Bee, but only one finalist from each state goes on to compete in the finals.

Meet this year's contestants!

Learn more about the National Geographic Bee.

Do you have what it takes to compete? Quiz Your Noodle and find out!

Celebrate America's parks on May 19! Kids all over the country will be visiting parks this Saturday. Are you planning to visit a park with your family this weekend? Check out the National Kids to Parks Day website to find an event near you and register to participate. As the National Park Trust mascot Buddy Bison says, "Explore outdoors, the parks are yours!"

Did you visit a park for National Kids to Parks Day last year?

Do you have a favorite national park or state park?

Ask your parents to sign up at the official National Kids to Parks website.

(AD) Check out the National Geographic Kids National Parks Guide U.S.A.

(AD) Tell your parents about the National Geographic National Parks book and app.

See pictures of U.S. national parks on National Geographic Kids.


Photograph by Jim Neumann, My Shot

More than 114,000 young artists from across the country have submitted their drawings to the Doodle 4 Google contest, and now you can help select the winners! The drawings are all based on this year's theme, which is "If I could travel in time, I'd visit..."

The competition was open to K-12 students in the United States. The entries are broken up into five different age groups, and you can vote for your favorite in each category. The national winner will be chosen on May 17, and the winning doodle will appear on the Google homepage on May 18.

Visit the Doodle 4 Google site to vote for your favorites.

Feeling creative? Submit your favorite photographs to National Geographic Kids My Shot!


Illustrations courtesy of Google