Fifth grader Rhiannon Cates nervously fidgeted with her shirt as she waited for her school’s geography bee to begin on Friday afternoon at Pine Ridge Elementary.

”I like learning about new places,” said Rhiannon, 11, while sitting at a long table in front of classmates and parents. ”I like learning about new people.”

Rhiannon may have been a little nervous about participating in the geography bee, but she went on to win.

She and seven other fourth and fifth graders at Pine Ridge participated in a geography bee on Friday.

According to National Geographic Society’s Web site, Pine Ridge is one of thousands of schools across the country who are participating in geography bees.

The National Geographic Bee is open to students in fourth through eighth grades. To participate in the bee, principals had to register their schools with the National Geographic Society by December.

Jewell Elementary’s geography bee will be at 2:30 p.m. on Monday. High Desert Middle School already had its bee on Thursday, which eighth grader Ian Winter won.

The geography bee winner at each school will have a chance to qualify for the state-level competition by taking a written test. The top 100 scorers on the test will compete in the spring.

From there, the state winner will go to Washington, D.C., to compete for a $25,000 scholarship with other winners. Last year’s national winner was a home-schooled eighth grader from Vancouver, Wash., according to the National Geographic Web site.

Linda Bilyeu, teacher librarian for Pine Ridge and Jewell Elementary, said she has been moderating geography bees at schools in Bend for about 10 years. She said the questions can be difficult.

”Luckily, they provide me with the answer sheet,” she said.

Eight students at Pine Ridge took turns answering geography questions on Friday.

The finalists were determined by the scores on a written test students took beforehand.

Bilyeu read Rhiannon her first question: ”The Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail stretches along the Sierra Nevada and Cascades mountain ranges from California to the Canadian border of what state?”

Rhiannon listened with her lips pursed and then quickly replied, ”Washington.”

The fifth grader didn’t miss a single question after that.

The eight students dwindled down to two after about 20 minutes into the geography bee. When a student missed two questions, they were dismissed from the competition.

It came down to Rhiannon and 10-year-old Curren McDowell.

Curren’s last question was: ”Zurich is a major banking center in which European country?”

When he didn’t know the answer, and because it was his second mistake, Rhiannon was announced the winner and given a National Geographic Bee medal.

Rhiannon was quickly surrounded by her classmates who wanted to look at the medal and touch it. The other finalists shook her hand and congratulated her.

Rhiannon said she studied hard for the competition. She also thought she got lucky with easier questions.

She said she was going to hang her medal on her bulletin board at home.

”I didn’t even think I would be a finalist,” she said.

Ailey Kato can be reached at 541-383-0387 or at akato@bendbulletin.com.