08-02-2025
Destination: Victory
How do you become a geography whiz? For fourth-graders Kyle Ostereich and Gus Peller, the answer's all over the map.
Ostereich and Peller – having just claimed first and second place in Thursday's Park Elementary School National Geographic Bee – revealed the secret of their success to the Leader.
'I just like to study maps a lot,' Peller said.
'Me too,' Ostereich added.
'It's just for the fun of it,' Peller noted.
Ostereich also accumulates knowledge by reading globe-trotting adventure books.
The contest was grueling and close, with the field narrowing to Ostereich and Peller after 10 questions that mainly centered on U.S. geography. The two made it through a three-question championship round, leading to a fourth tie-breaker question.
The game-winning query? Name the large chain of volcanic islands that stretches about 1,200 miles westward from Alaska (The answer is the Aleutian Islands.)
