Local schools represent region at National Science Bowl
This weekend, students from three local school districts will vie for glory – and an all-expenses-paid trip to the National Finals in Washington, D.C., in April – at the U.S. Department of Energy’s annual National Science Bowl tournament.
The tournament is one of 50 middle school regional competitions nationwide, and will take place at the Community College of Allegheny County’s south campus.
“We have to apply and pre-register and see if we get in. I always tell the kids, it’s a great honor that we’re one of the (32) teams in western Pennsylvania that gets to compete,” said Catherine Cline, science teacher and NSB team advisor at Geibel Catholic Junior-Senior High School, who has overseen a team annually since 2019. “We’re really excited.”
Since the National Science Bowl hosted its first competition in 1991, to foster interest in math and science, more than 344,000 students have competed in what is now one of the nation’s largest science competitions.
At the beginning of each school year, Cline invites five eighth grade students who showed academic interest and competition promise in seventh grade to join the school’s National Science Bowl team. Team practices kick off in October, and students spend at least one hour a week after school stretching their minds – and fingers.
“They will have math questions, energy questions, physical science questions, biology questions; we just go through the whole gamut. The Amoeba Sisters have these great little videos, we’ll watch some of those. Sometimes we’ll even talk about strategies: if you know the right answer, you have to hit that buzzer right away, because believe me, Marshall Middle School will be hitting it really fast,” laughed Cline, joking the rival middle school has fast fingers.
Hitting the buzzer is something Trinity Middle School’s National Science Bowl teams practice weekly.
“We have a little buzzer system, we kind of set up as a simulator of the competition,” said Andrea Gandy, science teacher and NSB team advisor. “We’ve been working since October just practicing our science knowledge, quizzing. They’re (the students) pretty excited to be able to show off their hard work.”
Hard work, it has been. Gandy will take two teams, each comprised of four “athletes” and one alternate, to the National Science Bowl Saturday, the first time Trinity will appear in person (a district team competed virtually during the pandemic).
The biggest challenge has been scheduling in-person practices – most students are involved in other extracurriculars, so the principal allows the team to meet twice a week during the school day – and covering all areas of science, Gandy said.
“We have some new seventh graders. Some of the science, the kids haven’t learned quite yet,” she said.
Despite some high-level questions that cover physics and chemistry, last time Trinity competed, Gandy’s team placed 11th overall. She can’t wait for this year’s group of students to attend the National Science Bowl in person.
“I’m excited for them to be able to compete and show off all their hard work. The kids are really enjoying it. They’re excited to actually be in the competition. They impress me with what they know.”
Allison Haragos’s team of students from Albert Gallatin South Middle School is also hoping to impress at their National Science Bowl debut this weekend.
“My students thrive on competing academically,” said Haragos, the gifted support teacher and National Science Bowl sponsor. “This is our first year. We put a lot of hours into preparing for the event. We’re excited.”
The seventh and eighth graders who make up Albert Gallatin’s National Science Bowl team have competed together before, on the Academic League team. Haragos said the National Science Bowl’s format is different: it’s a “Jeopardy”-style contest during which teams, who have only a few seconds to answer once the buzzer’s been hit, accrue points.
To prepare for the round robin competition, Albert Gallatin’s team has spent the last two months reviewing and learning science, including chemistry and physics, and math.
“Our students have an app on their phones with all different types of trivia questions in all of the areas that we’ll be competing in,” Haragos said. “We also practice in person.”
In-person practices help the team mesh – “This group of students, they just work very well together,” she said – and Haragos believes competitions like the National Science Bowl are a wonderful supplement to classroom learning.
“I just really think that student trivia competitions contribute positively to academic development, critical thinking, teamwork, and also personal growth. It’s just been a dynamic way for them to be engaged and apply all the knowledge they have,” she said.
Of course, the learning might be a symptom of competition for some of the students; this team, Haragos said, is going for gold.
“Of course we want a win. They live for this. They love to compete. They really get excited and they take it seriously,” Haragos said.
While Albert Gallatin is competing for the first time, Cline has taken Geibel Catholic students to the National Science Bowl annually since 2019. The school has never placed, and though winning would be wonderful, it’s the opportunity for learning and growth that makes academic competition so valuable, Cline said.
“It’s just a great leadership thing for them to do. It gives them a little pride in themselves, to work hard for something and achieve something. It’s also great for them to go meet other kids from throughout western PA,” Cline said.
At the beginning of this year, her team was “so nervous and they would get frustrated by some of the hard questions,” Cline recalled.
Now, “their knowledge level has expanded. I see them maturing and growing. That’s what it’s all about, as a teacher, to just see your kids growing emotionally, academically, just in so many ways,” she said.
“They’re ready. They’re ready to go do the competition.”
For more information on the National Science Bowl, visit https://science.osti.gov/wdts/nsb/About.