Gainesville Middle School Science Bowl Team Overtakes Miami in Double-Elimination, Melbourne Team Places Third

By Sherri Shields
March 16, 2015

Florida is one of 50 regional science bowl competitions nationwide that yields the winning team that advances to the National Middle School Science Bowl. This year, 17 middle school teams came to the Florida Solar Energy Center (FSEC), a research institute of the University of Central Florida, in Cocoa on March 5 to flex their intellect muscle in a fast-paced question-and-answer competition.

Four-member teams sit at a six-foot table, waiting for their question to be delivered.
Seventeen Florida teams competed in the double-elimination regional science bowl challenge.

Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science, the science bowl encourages middle school students to excel in mathematics, science and engineering. It provides an avenue of enrichment and reward for academic science achievement

Eight Florida finalist teams worked through the double elimination rounds over the course of several hours. Those teams were: Abraham Lincoln Middle from Gainesville, Archimedean Middle Conservatory from Miami, Edgewood Jr/Sr. High from Merritt Island, Falcon Cove Middle from Weston, Forest Grove Middle from Ft. Pierce, Westglades Middle from Coral Springs, West Shore Jr./Sr. from Melbourne, and Westwood Middle from Gainesville.

Students sitting at tables in double-elimination science bowl competition.
West Shore Jr/Sr High earned a third place at Florida’s regional science bowl.

The intense competition went into a tiebreaker. Abraham Lincoln Middle, which had teams in previous years advance to nationals, lost early to Westwood Middle, a school new to science bowl.  Westwood’s coach, Adrienne Thieke, previously coached Abraham Lincoln Middle where she also taught. “I’m extremely proud of both teams,” said Thieke.

Two, four-member teams sit at tables, each having a buzzer in front of them.
Abraham Lincoln Middle School and Archimedean Middle Conservatory advance to a double-elimination, tie-breaking round.

Lincoln bounced back from their loss to Westwood and went on to compete against undefeated Archimedean.  To everyone’s surprise, Archimedean lost to Lincoln. Since the competition was a double elimination, Archimedean and Lincoln had to play again, each having one loss.  In the tiebreaking round, Lincoln had a resounding win over Archimedean. West Shore Jr/Sr High School from Melbourne placed third.

Winning students and teacher standing in front of banner, wearing ribbons and holding trophy.
Abraham Lincoln Middle School from Gainesville secured first place in a tie-breaking round.

“The students were impressive, not only in their science and mathematics knowledge and skills, but also in how well they conducted themselves.  All were gracious, whether they won or lost.  It gives me great hope for the future!” said Jennifer Thompson, Secretary for the Space Coast Science Education Alliance.

Students holding banner and wearing red ribbons.
Archimedian Middle Conservatory from Miami won second place in the regional science bowl.

The National Middle and High School Science Bowls will be held in Washington D.C. on April 28 – May 2, 2016, where Abraham Lincoln Middle School will compete. The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science covers the travel and lodging expenses for all regional winning teams, which includes five team members and their coach.

Students holding green and white ribbons in front of National Science Bowl backdrop.
West Shore Jr/Sr High placed third in the regional science bowl.

Bright House Networks sponsored this year’s regional competition in Florida, which was conducted by the Space Coast Science Education Alliance.

For more information about the National Science Bowl, visit http://science.energy.gov/wdts/nsb/

PR16-01

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *