WASHINGTON, D.C. - A high school team from Durham and a middle school team from Albuquerque won the 2010 U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) National Science Bowl today at the National Building Museum in Washington.
North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics beat Mira Loma High School from Sacramento CA in the high school national championship match by correctly answering a chemistry question. Albuquerque Academy beat Gale Ranch Middle School from San Ramon, CA in the middle school national championship match.
First Lady Michelle Obama asked the bonus questions in the championship middle school match. The First Lady also spoke to the more than 500 students and 100 teacher/coaches about the importance of science education to the Nation's economic and technological future.
Members of the winning high school team are Akhil Jariwala, Christian Johnson, Bryce Taylor, Patrick Yang, Alex Yoo and coach Leslie Brinson. Members of the winning middle school team are Andy Chen, Jason Frank Hou, Ben Zolyomi, Eric Li, Raya Koreh, and Barbara Gilbert.
The high school national champion will receive an all-expense-paid science research trip to study the ecosystems of Belize in Central America.
"Congratulations to the two winning teams and to every single student here who has participated in this year's National Science Bowl, both here in Washington and in your hometowns in the months leading up today," said First Lady Michelle Obama. "We want young people energized in the way that you all are, because we know that American brainpower in science and math has always driven this country's prosperity, helping us make the discoveries and to build the industries that have transformed the way we live and work."
"I congratulate all of the students who reached this stage of the competition and especially today's winners," said Energy Secretary Steven Chu. "America's leadership tomorrow depends on how we educate our students today and the extraordinary talented students give us great hope for our future. They represent the next generation of scientific leaders, and can be rightly proud of what they have accomplished."
One hundred five teams from 42 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands competed in this weekend's national finals of the 20th annual DOE National Science Bowl. Earlier this spring, more than 20,000 students from across the country participated in regional Science Bowls. Sixty-eight high school and 37 middle school regional Science Bowl champions received all-expense paid trips to compete in the National Finals in Washington, DC.
DOE created the National Science Bowl in 1991 to encourage students to excel in mathematics and science and to pursue careers in these fields. DOE supports mathematics and science education to help provide a technically trained and diverse workforce for the nation. More than 200,000 students have participated in the National Science Bowl throughout its 20 year history.
High School Results
Second place Mira Loma High School team members are: Andrew Chen, Russ Islam, Anish Khare, Edward Lee, and Sriram Pendyala and coach James Hill.
The third place team was North Hollywood High School from North Hollywood, CA. Team members are: Isaac Kim, Kyle Lam, Harry Levine, Shaun Mehra, and Slater Victoroff and coach Altair Maine.
The fourth place team was Arcadia High School from Arcadia, CA. Team members are: Derek Chou, Jason Jong, Alex Wang, Eddie Xue, Samuel Zeng and coach Cherryl Vorak Mynster.
The Greater Sioux Falls Home School Association from Sioux Falls, SD won the Science Bowl Civility Award for outstanding sportsmanship. Team members are Michael Braga-Henebry, Samuel Jakos, Jennifer McLaughlin, Michael McLaughlin, Zack Truelson and coach Nels Truelson. The team won a nine-day trip to Alaska to study the region's glacial, biological, and geological treasures. Each member of the team also received an Amazon Kindle and a $100 gift certificate to Amazon.com.
Middle School Results
Second place Gale Ranch Middle School team members are: Rishi Krishnan, Ayush Rath, Saran Prembabu, Sijung-Jason Kim, Agustine Chemparathy, and coach George Chemparathy.
The third place team was Hopkins Junior High School from Fremont, CA. Team members are: Krishna Bharathal, Lewis Chen, Raghu Dhara, Hemang Jangle, and Rohan Mathuria and coach Paul Ricks.
The fourth place team was Marshall Middle School from Wexford, PA. Team members are: John Barczynski, Mike Becich, Surabhi Beriwal, Songela Chen, and Rahul Rao, and coach Daniel Williams.
Marshall Middle School also won the Science Bowl Civility Award for outstanding sportsmanship. Each member of the Civility Award team received an Amazon Kindle and a $100 gift certificate to Amazon.com.
Each member of the top four high school and top three middle school teams received an Nspire calculator provided by Texas Instruments. The top three high school and top three middle schools teams won Texas Instruments Computer Based Laboratories/2.
The top 16 high school and 8 middle school teams received a cash prize of $1,000 for their school science department.
The other 12 high school teams are:
- Chaska High School, Chaska, MN
- Central Academy High School, Des Moines, IA
- Dos Pueblos High School, Goleta, CA
- George Walton High School, Marietta, GA
- Lexington High School, Lexington, MA
- Lynbrook High School, San Jose, CA
- Montgomery Blair High School, Silver Spring, MD
- Palo Alto High School, Palo Alto, CA
- Poudre High School, Fort Collins, CO
- Sunset High School, Portland, OR
- West Windsor Plainsboro High School South, Princeton Junction, NJ
- Woodrow Wilson High School, Washington, DC
The other 4 middle school teams are:
- John Witherspoon Middle School, Princeton, NJ
- Robert Cushman Murphy Junior High School, Stony Brook, NY
- Takoma Park Middle School, Silver Spring, MD
- Van Antwerp Middle School, Niskayuna, NY
St. Christopher School from Tonawanda, NY raced the fastest car entry during the Solar Model Car Challenge, where all the National Science Bowl middle school teams designed, built and raced model cars powered by the sun. Roosevelt Middle School from River Forest, IL finished second and West Lafayette Science Club from West Lafayette, IN finished third. Will James Middle School from Billings, MT won the design portion of the car competition.
The DOE Office of Science manages the DOE National Science Bowl. This year's corporate sponsors are AREVA, Inc., Bechtel Corporation, IBM and Texas Instruments.
An archived video streaming webcast will available this afternoon from the DOE National Science Bowl® Press Room. Biographical information on the teams and additional details about the National Science Bowl are available at the same website.
Media contact(s):
Science Bowl Press Room, (301) 961-2854
DOE Public Affairs, (202) 586-4940