GWA Students Compete in National Science Bowl

Aspiring young scientists from George Walton Academy competed last month in the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science’s National Science Bowl. Karen Hammond, coach for GWA’s Science Bowl team, said unfortunately the team did not make it to the regional competition scheduled to take place in Savannah this weekend, but it wasn’t for lack of trying.

“The day of the competition is similar to squeezing an entire football season into one day. Students rush from meet to meet every half-hour, all day long, checking the scoreboard along the way to see their ranking,” Hammond said. “Meets are very similar to the game ‘Jeopardy,’ and each team must bring a set of buzzers to contribute to the effort.” 

Hammond said only eight teams took part in the sub-regional qualifiers at the University of Georgia on Jan. 26 because of the level of difficulty of the competition.

“In our case, it's very much a 'David and Goliath' situation,” she said. “George Walton was the smallest school, and the only private school to compete in our sub-regional competition, going up against extremely large and tough schools such as the Gwinnett School of Science and Technology.  Nonetheless, we believe it's a good thing for our students, because they spend all year studying and practicing for this competition, which has the end result of making them much more knowledgeable in all areas of science.”

The Office of Science began this competition to interest today’s youth in pursuing careers in science and math. The winner of the regional competition will receive a fully paid trip to Washington, D.C. to compete in the Office of Science’s National Science Bowl in late April. The winner of the national competition wins prizes for the team members and their schools. Although GWA didn’t make it through, even students who were not entered in the competition are involved in similar science exercises during the year.

“We have 17 members in grades 9-12, and divide our team into an ‘A’ and ‘B’ teams; the ‘B’ team do not actually go to the competition, but provide the Loyal Opposition for our ‘A’ team for the year in practices,” Hammond said. “Both teams are invaluable to our effort.”

Since its inception, more than 225,000 students have participated in what organizers say has become one of the nation's largest science competitions. This year, about 9,500 more high school students and 4,500 middle school students are expected to engage in the lead up to the National Science Bowl - many of whom are expected go on to become scientists and teachers, engineers and leaders.

GWA Teams this year were:

Co-Captains:  AnnaKate Pulliam & Ben Hammond. 

A team members:  Sedonne Blake, Murphy Pulliam, Carolyn LaMalva. 

B team members:  Mackenzie Britt, Casey Couch, Lindsey Bolton, Nick Carruth, Kelly Briscoe, Keaton Russell, Ilya Kim, Jade Leming, Jordan Hames, Bryce McWaters, Bikel Stodghill, Julianna Reynolds.