Great Neck South Wins Long Island Regional Science Bowls

Teams of students from Great Neck South Middle School and Great Neck South High School took first place in the middle and high school regional Science Bowls held at Brookhaven National Laboratory

Great Neck South High School team enlarge

Great Neck South High School took first place in the high school competition for the Long Island Regional Science Bowl. The team members, pictured from left to right, are Matthew Tsui, David Wang, Anthony Zhan (team captain), Jansen Wong, Bradley He, and coach James Tuglio.

UPTON, NY—On Thursday, Jan. 30 and Friday, Jan. 31, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory held two back-to-back installments of the Long Island Science Bowl, a regional branch of DOE’s 30th annual National Science Bowl® (NSB). In this fast-paced question-and-answer showdown, teams of students from across Long Island were tested on a range of science disciplines including biology, chemistry, Earth science, physics, energy, and math.

On Thursday, Great Neck South Middle School (team one of three) garnered first place in the middle school competition, earning their school three years of consecutive wins. On Friday, top honors went to Great Neck South High school, who competed against 19 other teams in the high school competition. As the winners, Great Neck South Middle School (team one) and Great Neck South High School have won all-expenses-paid trips to the National Finals near Washington, D.C., which will begin on April 30. They’ll be joined by the winners of all 112 regional competitions held across the country.

“The National Science Bowl® continues to be one of the premier academic competitions across the country, preparing America's next-generation for future success in the ever-expanding fields of science, technology, and engineering,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette. “The Department of Energy is committed to fostering opportunities for our nation’s students, and we congratulate Great Neck South in advancing to the National Finals, where they will continue to showcase their talents as the top minds in math and science.”

Great Neck South Middle School (team one) enlarge

Great Neck South Middle School (team one) took first place in the middle school competition for the Long Island Regional Science Bowl. The team members, pictured from left to right, are coach Tobias Hatten, Emily Tsui, Erin Wong (team captain), Luke Huang, Zican Zhang, Colin Hu, and coach Diane Caplain.

Erin Wong, captain of the winning team from Great Neck South Middle School, said, “It feels really happy and exciting to win. We have been practicing since October and were working really hard as a team. In the beginning we didn’t work together very well, but now we work together really well!”

Anthony Zhan, captain of the winning team from Great Neck South High School, said, “We’re more like a group of friends than a competitive team, so it’s been really fun. It’s really satisfying to see all our practice pay off.”

The top 16 high school teams and the top 16 middle school teams in the National Finals will win $1,000 for their schools’ science departments. Prizes for the top two high school teams for the 2020 NSB will be announced at a later date. The first and second place high school teams from the 2019 NSB received all-expenses-paid science trips to Alaska, where they learned about glaciology, marine and avian biology, geology, and plate tectonics.

In the 2020 Long Island Regional Science Bowls at Brookhaven Lab, all participating students received a Science Bowl t-shirt. Winning teams also received trophies and medals, and the top four high school teams received cash awards. Prizes were courtesy of Teachers Federal Credit Union and Brookhaven Science Associates (BSA), the event’s sponsors. BSA is the company that manages and operates Brookhaven Lab for DOE.

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High school runners-up: Wheatley School, 2nd place (from left to right: Meena Singh of TFCU, BU Ramanand of TFCU, Viraj Jayam, Avinash Reddy, Victor Li, Federick Lin, Karen Li, coach Mary Alexis Pace, Marissa Familette of TFCU, Jennifer Gunn of TFCU, Stephen Dilieto of TFCU); Ward Melville High School, 3rd place, not pictured (Keene Lu, William Sun, Christopher Moore, Luke Randall, Mourya Chimpiri, and coach Silva Michel); Comsewogue High School, 4th place (from left to right: Meena Singh of TFCU, BU Ramanand of TFCU, Jennifer Gunn of TFCU, coach Elizabeth Casey, Yashodhan Diwan, Anthony Foraci, Alexander Smargiassi, Srikar Ananthoju, Dianna Nielsen, Marissa Familette of TFCU, Stephen Dilieto of TFCU).

Middle school runners-up: Great Neck Middle School (team three), 2nd place (from left to right: coach Tobias Hatten, Kira Nguyen, Alexander Xu, Ivan Chiang, Ethan Wu, Brandon Kim, coach Diana Caplain); Robert Cushman Murphy Jr. High School (team one), 3rd place (from left to right: coach Jillian Visser, Jayden Chandool, Michael Melikyan, Michaelangelo Scialabba, Rithik Sogal, Kevin Shi, coach Emily Chernakoff); Commack Middle School (team one), 4th place (left to right: coach Mary Petrano, Mehek Sawhney, Jonathan Zhang, Ishaan Singh, Sean Levy, Saharsh Peddireddy).

The Long Island Regional Science Bowl is one of many educational opportunities organized by Brookhaven’s Office of Educational Programs (OEP). Every year, OEP holds science workshops, contests, internships, field trips, and more for students in kindergarten through graduate school. For more information on ways to participate in science education programs at Brookhaven Lab, visit the OEP website.

More than 305,000 students have participated in NSB throughout its 29-year history, and it is one of the nation’s largest science competitions. The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science manages the NSB Finals competition. More information is available on the NSB website.

Brookhaven National Laboratory is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science. The 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, visit https://energy.gov/science.

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