FSEC Selected as a Middle School Science Bowl Site

The Florida Solar Energy Center (FSEC) has been chosen as host of the Southeast Regional Middle School Science Bowl (previously known as the Florida Middle School Science Bowl) in April, 2006.

This regional competition is part of the national Middle School Science Bowl program, which is coordinated by the Office of Science at the U.S. Department of Energy. Finalists from the 28 regional science bowls around the country compete in the national finals.

The Science Bowl is a two-prong competition, involving an academic math and science question-and-answer portion along with a hands-on hydrogen fuel cell competition. The Southeast regional competition will take place on Saturday, April 1, 2006 at the Florida Solar Energy Center. The first place team from each regional competition receives an expense-paid trip to the national competition in Colorado June 21-24, 2006. Florida teams have excelled at the national event, bringing home first and third place trophies in the past two years.

For more information about the Middle School Science Bowl, contact Susan Schleith at 321-638-1017 or email Susan@fsec.ucf.edu. More information about the National and Regional Science Bowl competitions is available at www.scied.science.doe.gov.

The Florida Solar Energy Center, a research institute of the University of Central Florida, is the largest and most active state-supported energy research center in the country. Current research activities include solar water and pool heating, solar electric and distributed generation systems, energy-efficient buildings, alternative transportation systems, hydrogen fuel, fuel cells and other energy areas. For more information about the center, visit www.fsec.ucf.edu or call the FSEC Pubic Information Office at (321) 638-1015.