Stoller Middle School of Beaverton, Ore., emerges undefeated in BPA Regional Science Bowl to advance to national competition
Stoller Middle School Team #1: (l to r) Coach Qian Zhang, Benji Chiu, Kevin Shen and Grant Chen. Front row: Aileen Guo Randy Zhang.
Stoller Middle School Team 1 of Beaverton, Ore., bested 16 rounds of competitors from across western Washington and Oregon to win the BPA Regional Science Bowl this weekend at the University of Portland.
Science Infinity Team #1: (l to r) Coach Sundara Samavedi, Aditya Kannan, Sagarika Samavedi, Ananta Ranganathan, Vivek Dutta and Surtaz Khan.
The final, head-to-head match pitted Stoller against Science Infinity Club Team 1 of Bellevue, Wash., in a repeat of last year’s championship round. Stoller narrowly beat Science Infinity, 76-66, to advance to the Department of Energy National Science Bowl in late April. Xenon Science Group of Bellevue, Wash., took third place.
Xenon Science Club: (l to r) Coach Veeranna Shivprakasha, Evan Tung, Gabriel Shen, Anirudh Prakash and Matthew Shum.
For 24 years, the Bonneville Power Administration has hosted the nation’s largest regional science bowl as part of its commitment to encouraging young minds to engage in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Teams, which represented both public and private schools, traveled from as far as Republic, Wash., and Ashland, Ore., to compete. Many practiced for months, in groups and individually, for the competition, which is as intense as any sporting event.
The morning kicked off with a round-robin contest of eight rounds that whittled the teams from 62 to 16. The advancing teams spent the afternoon competing in a double-elimination contest that could last up to nine rounds. For each match, teams of four students sat opposite each other, using buzzers to field a variety of science-based questions.
The top individual performers in the morning rounds – those who correctly answered the most questions – were recognized as All-Stars.
This year’s BPA Regional Science Bowl All-Stars are:
- Kevin Shen, Stoller Middle School Team 1, Beaverton, Ore.
- Kevin Jin, Stoller Middle School Team 3, Beaverton, Ore.
- Eric Tong, Meadow Park Middle School Team 1, Beaverton, Ore.
- Matthew Seeley, Lake Oswego Junior High Team 1, Lake Oswego, Ore.
- Erica Chiang, Lake Oswego Junior High Team 2, Lake Oswego, Ore.
- Anirudh Prakash, Xenon Science Group, Bellevue, Wash.
- Monica Chang, Shahala Middle School, Vancouver, Wash.
- Alex Westrick, Ashland Middle School Team 1, Ashland, Ore.
Also recognized at the lunch celebration were the winning entrants in the second year of SciClips, a competition sponsored by Google in which competing teams created short videos that expressed their enjoyment of science. Winning teams received a gift certificate for supplies for their sponsoring school’s science laboratory. Coaches for the winning teams also received a trophy in the form of an Einstein bobblehead.
The SciClips winners are:
- Boring Middle School, Boring, Ore.
- Mt. Tabor Middle School, Portland, Ore.
- Valley Catholic Middle School, Beaverton, Ore.
- King’s Way Christian Middle School, Vancouver, Wash.
- Shahala Middle School, Vancouver, Wash.
- Pierce County Home School Club, Milton, Wash.
BPA sponsors the science bowl to showcase students’ talents in science, technology, engineering and math, as well as to encourage them to consider careers in these fields. This helps to ensure a future pool of engineers, scientists and innovators so critical to the energy industry.
A separate competition will be held on Saturday, Feb. 7, for high school students with 67 teams signed up from western areas in Washington and Oregon. They’ll not only compete for the trip to Washington, D.C., for the National Science Bowl, but also for potential scholarships. Several colleges and universities throughout the region have set aside a total of $134,000 in scholarships that members of the top three teams may claim.
The BPA Regional Science Bowl is powered by more than 200 volunteers from BPA and partner agencies, many of whom have volunteered for 10 years or more.
The event is sponsored by the University of Portland, Google, Vernier Software & Technology, and Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories Inc.
BPA REGIONAL SCIENCE BOWL 2015 – High School
Where: Franz Hall, University of Portland, Portland, Ore.
When: Feb. 7, 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Notes: The event is free and open to the public. Championship rounds begin at approximately 4 p.m. in Buckley Auditorium.