NOSB National Competition
May 1-4 2014
Seattle, WA.
Dr. Damassa’s (Earth Science teacher) recap:
The Lexington High School National Ocean Sciences (NOSB--see www.nosb.org) team placed 8th overall and 6th in the science expert briefing competition at the 17th annual NOSB Finals. Twenty-two teams from across the country participated in the competition, and, without a doubt, one of the best aspects of the weekend is the chance to meet people from other states (including some that have no ocean!). The theme for the competition this year was ocean acidification (the "equally evil twin" of climate change, as described in Elizabeth Kolbert's latest book). Members of the competing team are: Caroline Berger, Mayukha Karnam and Sneha Rao, juniors; Roshan Padaki, sophomore, and Afareen Jaleel, freshman.
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The weekend began with field trips to various locations in the Puget Sound area, where students had a chance to meet professional scientists, see laboratory facilities, collect data from a boat on Puget Sound, kayak on a nearby lake, examine marine invertebrates at low tide, etc. The opening ceremonies and group dinner were held at the Seattle Aquarium on Friday evening (we ate chicken or pasta, and had the entire place to ourselves, which was wonderful!).
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On Saturday morning, the competition began in earnest with four round robin matches, followed by our team's science expert briefing. This exercise is a mock-congressional hearing in which students take on the roles of federal, state, academic, environmental and industrial scientists as they "testify" before a panel of three judges (the "congressional committee"). The students work hard in the weeks before competition to prepare their written briefing, which is based on an item of legislation not passed by last year's congress, and relevant to the theme of competition. At the briefing, they each read their abstracts and respond to questions from the judges. I sat in the back of the room as an observer; coaches are expected to take a "hands-off" approach throughout this activity, so this was the first time I had heard their presentations.
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On Saturday afternoon, the double-elimination rounds began (Lexington was seeded 5th after the round robin matches). We won, lost, won and then lost a second time, to four different teams in the afternoon, ending our run at about 6:15 pm. The competition questions ranged from easy (What is the wind direction of the Trade Winds in the Northern Hemisphere?) to absurdly difficult (How many pirate attacks occurred in 2012 off the coast of Somalia?). There are toss-up/multiple choice, bonus/short answer, and team challenge questions in each match.
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I was extremely proud to see how quickly the team bounced back--they are definitely resilient--and are already making plans for next year. It was also really impressive to watch the students persevere despite the long hours of intense concentration needed to stay in the game. There is rarely any down time between matches as the team moves from one room to the next. Sunday's final rounds came down to six teams, and we watched the final matches from the audience--slightly disappointed to have been eliminated, but certainly more relaxed than the teams still competing.
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It has been my joy and privilege to coach NOSB teams for eleven years. Thanks to the exceptional talents of our students, I have had the great good fortune to have made four successive trips to Nationals, followed by three award trips with those teams during the summers (San Diego/Catalina Island in 2011, Beaufort, NC in 2012, Savannah, Georgia in 2013). For all of us, being part of NOSB has been a wonderful experience!
Annual Department of Energy National Science Bowl
April, 2014
Washington D.C.
Mr. Gould’s (Physics teacher) recap:
The Lexington High School Science Bowl team competed this past weekend at the 24th Annual Department of Energy National Science Bowl. The kids had a strong showing at the competition. They placed 4th in their in their division of 9 teams. The divisions are determined by each team randomly selecting a plastic egg. As a consequence of this selection process, occasionally, there are some divisions that get stacked with very strong teams. This year our teams' division had four teams that perenially advance to the double eliminations rounds of the competition and only the top two teams advance. We lost on the last question in two of our rounds just missing moving on to the double elimination rounds. Our kids had a great showing as it was the first time for all them competing at the National Bowl.
The Science Bowl was founded in 1991 by the Department of Energy in an effort to encourage kids to pursue Science, Mathematics, Engineering and Technology. It's a jeopardy-like buzzer competition where four students compete in two rounds of intense questions and answers in Biology, Chemistry, Earth and Space Science, Physics, Mathematics and Energy. Sixty-nine regional winners from across the country converge on Washington D.C. at the end of April every year to attend science seminars, tour the monuments, make friends and ultimately test their wits and endurance in one of the most, fast-paced, intense academic competitions in the country.
In addition to their academic excellence, the kids showed excellent sportsmanship, made lots of friends, displayed a wonderful sense of humor and received kudos from the organizers for their attitude, demeanor and overall civility through out the weekend. Additionally, the kids also organized an epic practice round in the lounge of their dorm. On Friday night, the first night the kids had free time, they brought in over 6 teams of 30 plus kids with over 20 kids playing in rounds at once practicing for more than 4 hours. This kind of experience is what this competition is all about. The kids had lots of fun and four of them hope to return next year to give it another shot. The team members are Rohil Prasad (Senior), Henry Li (Junior), Eric Hsu (Junior), Jueun Lee (Junior) and Catherine Wang (Freshman). Please congratulate them for their success when you have a chance.
These kids should be commended, but they didn't do it alone. They had lots of help from 20 other hardworking science bowl team members as well.
Thanks to Parul Kumar for helping out with preparing them for Organic Chemistry. In addition, thanks to all the science department members who taught any of these kids during their time at LHS helping to instill in them a passion and love for science.