National Ocean Sciences Bowl Finals To Be Hosted In Late April
STONY BROOK, NEW YORK January 23, 2007 —The Marine Sciences Research Center at Stony Brook University will once again host 100+ students from 16 high schools across the region as they compete in the 6th Annual Bay Scallop Bowl on Saturday, February 10, 2007 at the Student Activities Center at Stony Brook University. The all-day competition includes Q&A “buzzer” rounds and team challenge questions that test student knowledge of oceanography and related sciences. The winning team will be announced after the late afternoon rounds.
Marine Sciences Research Center Dean and Director David Conover said “The Bay Scallop Bowl is an extremely important event because it increases the awareness among high school students about the plight of our coastal environment. We need to attract the brightest young minds to a career in oceanography to help us find solutions to the decline in health of our marine environment.”
This year’s lineup is dominated by suburban schools from Nassau and Suffolk Counties, and includes Jericho High School which captured the Bay Scallop Bowl title in 2006; Stony Brook School, the 2006 second place winner; and three-time winner Mt. Sinai High School. Powerhouse Bronx High School of Science, winner in 2004, returns to compete as will several other New York City schools including Regis High School and Saint Ann’s in Brooklyn. Returning for the sixth year in a row is contender Churchville-Chili High School from upstate Monroe County.
“Last year’s Bay Scallop Bowl ended with the crowd exploding into a standing ovation for the last second come-from-behind winners. It isn’t often that academic achievements receive sports-event treatment,” said Jack Mattice, Director of New York Sea Grant, one of the Bowl’s cosponsors. “Then during the award ceremonies the audience let the second and lower place finishers know that their efforts also were appreciated. What a great way to interest young people in coastal science so that as scientists, decision makers and citizens they will help sustain our oceans for future generations.”
Volunteers attend to all the details that help make the event happen and act as moderators and judges. This year’s pool of volunteers is drawn from University faculty, students and staff (especially from MSRC), New York Sea Grant, NYS Department of Environmental Conservation, Battelle Corporation, The Riverhead Foundation, Town of Brookhaven, and the NY-NJ Harbor Estuary Program.
The winning Bay Scallop Bowl team will go on to the 9th Annual National Ocean Sciences Bowl to be held for the first time on the Stony Brook campus in late April at the Student Activities Center. That team will compete against 24 other regional champions from around the country. The national winners will be announced on Monday, April 30 2007. Regionally, the Bay Scallop Bowl is hosted and organized by the Marine Sciences Research Center at Stony Brook University and sponsored by The Alfred and Jane Ross Foundation, Bank of America and New York Sea Grant. The NOSB® is sponsored by the Consortium for Oceanographic Research & Education in Washington, D.C. More information about the national event is available at www.nosb.org.
The National Ocean Sciences Bowl is sponsored by the Consortium for Oceanographic Research & Education or CORE that represents 74 oceanographic institutions, universities and aquaria, and is funded by the National Oceanographic Partnership Program (NOPP), a collaboration of 15 federal agencies including National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) / Sea Grant.
For more information contact: Barbara Branca at 631.632.6956 Barbara.Branca@stonybrook.edu
