Students compete in Brookhaven Lab Science Bowl

Fifteen students from William Floyd Middle School competed in the annual Regional Science Bowl held at Brookhaven National Laboratory. The event is a precursor to the National Science Bowl competition held by the U.S. Department of Energy.

In the competition, teams competed in a round robin of jeopardy-style questions. Floyd was one of 10 middle schools to compete Thursday, bringing three teams. The teams are from the middle school science quiz bowl team, a club dedicated to practicing for this competition. Advisor Ms. Mary Nappi said it was the first year they brought along a full team (five members) of sixth graders. The Floyd team lost in a division tie-breaker in the round robins. 

After the competition, students could walk around an activity fair learning about different aspects of science. They then went on a tour of the National Synchrotron Light Source II facility, which uses focused beams of light to conduct experiments in various capacities. Finally, students participated in a design challenge, where they were tasked to make a ping pong ball rest on a tower made of straws and pipe cleaners.

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 305,000 students have participated in this "Jeopardy"-style contest. It is one of the nation's largest science competitions. 

Similar to a sporting event, the competition is set up in a round-robin format of four divisions in the morning, during which all teams 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. For the high school contest, the first-place team will receive $500; second-place, $250; third-place, $125, fourth-place division winner, $75. All prizes and giveaways are courtesy of the event's sponsors, Brookhaven Science Associates and Teachers Federal Credit Union. The first-place high school and middle school teams will get to participate in the National Science Bowl, to be held near Washington, DC.