Team from Doherty School to Compete in National Science Bowl

This was provided by the US Department of Energy. 

A team of middle school students from Andover is participating in a regional competition of the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science’s National Science Bowl in Nashua, N.H. next weekend. The Office of Science began this competition to interest today’s youth in pursuing careers in science and math.

A team from Doherty Middle School will be competing in aregional round of the National Science Bowl on Saturday, March 2 at Nashua Community College, 505 Amherst Street in Nashua, N.H.

In the regional competitions, teams of four students each will be faced with tough mathematical problems and tested on their knowledge of a vast number of areas including astronomy, biology, Earth science and physics. (A couple of the questions the students face could even relate to Australia, though it's inconceivable they'll have anything to do with iocane powder.)

Regional winners will earn fully-paid trips to Washington D.C. for the National Finals, scheduled for April 25-29. There the students will be tested with more difficult questions, as well as a car race (middle school) and a science challenge (high school). The national champions will receive pretty amazing prizes (which will be announced at a later date).

Only one middle and high school team apiece can win the Finals prize. But every student who competes will bring back something valuable. Many of the students will take home the facts they've had to memorize, as well as perhaps a better set of problem-solving skills. Yet the real value of the Science Bowl is in the habits of discipline and deferred gratification that all of the students learn along the way; the necessity of hitting the books instead of the mall (see http://science.energy.gov/news/in-focus/2012/12-12-12/).

Those hard-won habits of mind – and will – are likely to make the students successful in life long after the Finals are over. And that's what the Science Bowl is really all about. So let the battle of wits begin.

The Department's Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information please visit http://science.energy.gov/about. For more information about the National Science Bowl, please go to http://science.energy.gov/wdts/nsb/.