Stony Brook University President Shirley Strum Kenny, Assemblyman Steve Englebright, and State Senator John Flanagan joined with MSRC Dean and Director David Conover to welcome 16 high school teams from across New York State to the 5th annual Bay Scallop Bowl. Also on hand was Linda Armyn, Vice President of Business Development for Bethpage Federal Credit Union, a major sponsor of this year’s event. Hosted by MSRC, the Bay Scallop Bowl is one of 25 regional competitions held nationwide designed to test students’ knowledge of the ocean sciences.
This year’s competition was more action-packed than ever with the excitement culminating in the final rounds. In the semifinals, Stony Brook School took on the Bronx High School of Science – Bowl champions in 2004. The round came down to the final question when the Stony Brook team buzzed in before the multiple choice answer options were read – and then blindly guessed the correct answer, winning the semifinals by one point.
As the championship rounds moved into the early evening hours, two teams remained to vie for this year’s title. Stony Brook School has competed in the Bowl every year since its inception and this year’s team of 11th and 12th graders logged their strongest performance to date. Jericho High Schoo, on the other hand, was a newcomer to the competition and went into the double-elimination finals undefeated. In the first of the final rounds, Jericho fell to Stony Brook 48 to 65. Stony Brook continued to come on strong in the decisive 12th round and quickly took a commanding lead over Jericho. In the final buzzer round, however, Jericho High School shut down Stony Brook’s momentum and came back for the win. The Jericho team celebrated in a rush of hugging and jumping up and down while the crowd of over 100 people applauded both teams’ excellent performances and the new Bay Scallop Bowl champions – Jericho High School.
Christopher Hoppner, coach of the Jericho team, commented that preparing their first Bowl team was .. not that hard when you have really great students.” Hoppner advises a class designed to get the students involved in scientific research. He credits one of his students, Harris Moore, in coming up with the idea to form a team for this year’s competition. Moore, an 11th grader and the team captain, said he was motivated by his interest in marine biology. The team will travel to California in May to compete against 24 other teams from around the nation in the National Ocean Sciences Bowl.
MSRC Dean Conover concluded, “This was one of the most fiercely contested competitions ever. The teams were extremely well coached and determined to win. I am stunned by the knowledge of oceanography the teams displayed and it’s great to see high schools students delve so deeply into science. They are the future marine scientists of the world. When they choose a college, I hope they all decide to attend Stony Brook.”
