NEWPORT NEWS, Va. - The Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology from Alexandria beat out St. Christopher's School from Richmond, 54-44, in the final round today to win the Virginia Regional High School Science Bowl held at Jefferson Lab.
St. Christopher's finished in second at the end of the intense, day-long academic competition, while Bishop Sullivan Catholic High School, from Virginia Beach, finished third. Gloucester High School, Gloucester, took fourth place.
For finishing in first, the TJHSST team, coached by Sharon Webb, won an expense-paid trip to the U.S. Department of Energy Science Bowl Nationals to be held in Washington, D.C., April 29 to May 4. The team also took home a $750 check for its school, the regional banner that the team will carry to nationals, a team trophy and individual medals.
The St. Christopher's team, coached by Vicki Hurt and Alina Cichocki, received a $500 check for its school and a team trophy. The Bishop Sullivan team, coached by William Dunn and Carol Stapanowich, earned a $300 check for its school and a team trophy. And the Gloucester team, coached by Anne Petersen, took home the fourth-place team trophy.
Sixteen teams, representing high schools from across the commonwealth competed in this year's academic competition.
The National Science Bowl tournament – sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy since 1991 – is an annual competition among teams of students. The teams face off in an intense question-and-answer format where contestants are quizzed on their knowledge in all science disciplines, including astronomy, biology, chemistry, earth science, general science, mathematics and physics. The day is broken into two rounds: morning round-robin matches, followed by double-elimination matches in the afternoon. A match is two eight-minute halves with a two-minute break.
Teams that didn't advance to the afternoon session were invited to compete in a design and engineering challenge dubbed the Stay All Day Contest. Teams were presented with three very different activities where they had to analyze problems, develop working prototypes with specific materials and make projections based on a model's performance. The team with the best combined results for the activities was Woodbridge Senior High School from Woodbridge and coached by Kathryn Voehl. They won individual prizes and received a check for $300 for their school.
"These events champion an interest in science, technology, engineering and math among our nation's youth," notes Jan Tyler, Jefferson Lab's Science Education manager.
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The team from Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, Alexandria, beat out 15 other schools to win the Virginia Regional High School Science Bowl on Feb. 27. Left to right are team members Daniel Li, Greyson Lewis, Akshar Wunnava, Hanwen Xu and Aaron Koenig and Coach Sharon Webb. Accompanying them are Virginia Science Bowl mascots Mario and Ollie. |
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The St. Christopher's School team, from Richmond, finished in second place at the Virginia Regional High School Science Bowl. From left are coaches Alina Cichocki and Vicki Hurt and team members James Blanton, Williams Bannard, Patrick Delaney, Peter Carr and Christopher Delaney . |
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The Bishop Sullivan Catholic High School team, from Virginia Beach, finished third at the Virginia High School Science Bowl. Here, flanked by their coaches William Dunn and Carol Stapanowich are team members (front, left to right) Mary Chang, Christine Chesley and Nathan Taylor and back row, l. to r., Jack Hall and Kyle Bankes. |
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Gloucester High School, Gloucester, took fourth place at the Virginia Regional High School Science Bowl. Here Coach Anne Petersen (far left) is pictured with several members of the Gloucester team: (left to right) Nathan Busskohl, Nirmal Patel, Caitlin Cheresnowsky and Lucas Walker. Not pictured: Stewart Baldwin and Jessica Kersey. |
- To learn more about DOE's National Science Bowl competition, visit: https://science.energy.gov/wdts/nsb
- Check out the types of questions the students answered at: https://science.energy.gov/wdts/nsb/regional-competitions/resources/hs-sample-questions/
Jefferson Lab will host the Virginia Regional Middle School Science Bowl on, March 6.