Saturday, February 13, our Science Bowl team won the regional championship in Bakersfield. Thirty-one teams competed. They will advance to the National Finals in Washington, D.C., in April. Congratulations to Brandon Hung, Jeff Chow, Ben Chen, Miriam Sun and Leslie Sim.

A series of 116 regional middle school and high school tournaments are being held across the country from January through March. Winners will advance to represent their areas at the National Science Bowl® held from April 28 to May 2 in Washington, D.C., for the final middle school and high school competitions.

The top 16 high school teams and the top 16 middle school teams in the National Finals will win $1,000 for their schools’ science departments. Prizes for the top two high school teams for the 2016 NSB will be announced at a later date.

The high school team that won the 2015 NSB received a nine-day, all-expenses-paid science trip to Alaska, where they learned more about glaciology, marine and avian biology, geology and plate tectonics. The second-place high school team at the 2015 NSB won a five-day, fully guided adventure tour of several national parks, which included a whitewater rafting trip.

More than 250,000 students have participated in the National Science Bowl® in its 25- year history, and it is one of the nation’s largest science competitions. More than 14,000 students compete in the NSB each year.

DOE’s Office of Science manages the NSB Finals competition. More information is available on the NSB website: http://www.science.energy.gov/wdts/nsb/.