Buzzing bees. (Update: education news from schools, businesses, research and government agencies).

A Washington teenager--whose mom is his main teacher at home--won a geography bee sponsored by National Geographic.

James Williams, 14, won the U.S. National Geographic Bee and $25,000 in May for his geographic expertise, beating out 54 other students during a two-day competition in May. About 11 percent of Americans, aged 18 to 24, cannot find their own country on a map and another 50 percent could not identify China, the United Kingdom or Japan, according to last year's National Geographic-Roper Global Literacy Survey.

In similar news, eighth-grader Sai Gunturi, 13, of Dallas, became the 76th winner of the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee. As a reward for correctly spelling "pococurante," a word that suggests nonchalance, Gunturi walked away with a trophy, $12,000, a new encyclopedia set and other gifts.

Of the 251 spellers who descended on Washington for the annual event, the ones who were still standing in the last several of this year's 15 rounds all asked about word roots and history.

This year's bee was the largest ever, and spellers tended to take more time before answering--the final rounds lasted nearly 9 hours.

www.national-geographic.com,

www.spellingbee.com