Redmond teen wins National Geography Bee

Caitlin Snaring, 14, of Redmond, won the National Geographic Bee in Washington, D.C., today, an official with National Geographic News said.

Caitlin was the only girl among the 10 finalists and is only the second female champion in the 19-year history of the bee.

Caitlin is a home-schooled eighth-grader who made her second appearance in the geography bee. Last year, she missed only one question — about a specific type of storm cloud — and was knocked out.

"This year [the questions] were incredibly easy," she said.

She finished the preliminary competition on Tuesday with a perfect score, one of only two students to achieve a flawless performance.

Caitlin and nine other finalists from around the United States and its territories faced "Jeopardy!" host Alex Trebek today. Students in grades four through eight are eligible to compete.

The questions at the bee ranged from the location of rivers to political upheaval, demographics and land formations. With each question, Caitlin coolly stared ahead for a few seconds before responding.

Her father, David Snaring, said his daughter got serious about studying for the bee after her miss in 2006. She created binders of information broken down by continent. "She is so motivated," he said.

Caitlin said she also creates color-coded maps to keep track of world politics, industry and religion.

"The Afro-Asiatic language is green," she explained.

Her mom, Traci Snaring, said she could answer fewer than half the questions her daughter got correct.

David Snaring said one advantage to home-schooling his daughter has been the flexibility to focus more intensely on geography.

Next year, Caitlin will attend Interlake High School in Bellevue. She wants to learn Spanish and Chinese with the career goal of becoming a history professor or an international diplomat negotiating trade deals between countries.

Until then, learning the technical names of land formations in Ireland is not all she does. She takes pottery classes and plays the piano, including Tchaikovsky and the theme from the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies.