Science Bowl at Brookhaven Lab, January 26

January 22, 2013

UPTON, NY — On Saturday, January 26, 100 students representing 20 high schools from Long Island will participate in a Regional Science Bowl competition at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory. The competition consists of a fast-paced question-and-answer tournament designed to test their knowledge in Biology, Chemistry, Earth and Space Science, Energy, Mathematics, and Physics.

The Regional Science Bowl at Brookhaven Lab is part of the National Science Bowl® competition coordinated by the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science. Since its inception in 1991, more than 225,000 high school students have participated in this "Jeopardy"-style contest, one of the nation's largest science competitions. By participating in Science Bowl, students are encouraged to excel in science and math and to pursue careers in those fields.

Starting on January 19th and continuing through March 9th, thousands of middle and high school students will compete in 120 regional competitions all across the country as well as Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. This year, about 9,500 more high school students and 4,500 middle school students are expected to participate, many of whom will likely go on to become scientists and teachers, engineers and leaders.

Similar to a sporting event, the 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Brookhaven regional contest is set up in a round-robin format of four divisions in the morning, during which all teams will compete, followed by double-elimination series involving each division winner with a final tournament in the afternoon. The team that answers the most questions correctly will win the top honor. All students will receive a Science Bowl T-shirt, and winning teams will receive a trophy. The first-place team will receive $500; second-place, $250; third-place, $125, fourth-place division winner, $100. All prizes and giveaways are courtesy of the event's sponsor: Brookhaven Science Associates.

The first-place team will earn a fully paid trip to Washington D.C. for the National Finals, scheduled for April 25-29. There the students will be tested with more difficult questions, as well as a car race (middle school) and a science challenge (high school). The national champions will receive prizes to be announced at a later date.

Only one middle and high school team apiece can win the Finals prize. But every student who competes will bring back something valuable. Many of the students will take home the facts they've memorized, as well as perhaps a better set of problem-solving skills. Yet the real value of the Science Bowl is in the habits of discipline and deferred gratification that all of the students learn along the way; the necessity of hitting the books instead of the mall (see http://science.energy.gov/news/in-focus/2012/12-12-12/ and http://science.energy.gov/news/in-focus/2013/01-16-13).

The Department's Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information please visit http://science.energy.gov/about.

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