For the second year-in-a-row, Westview High School Team 1 of Portland, Ore., won the BPA Regional Science Bowl and will advance to the National Science Bowl.

 

 

Westview went undefeated through 16 rounds in the nation’s largest regional science bowl. Sunset High School Team 1, also of Portland, came in second. Jesuit High School Team 1 of Portland came in third place.

 

 

Last weekend, Stoller Middle School Team 1 of Beaverton, Ore., won the middle school division of the BPA Regional Science Bowl to advance to nationals. Science Infinity Club Team 1 of Bellevue, Wash., came in second with Xenon Science Group of Bellevue, Wash., taking third place.

 

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 70 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.

 

 

 

 

 

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.

 

 

 

 

 

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.

 

The high school students not only competed for the trip to Washington, D.C., for the National Science Bowl in late April, 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.