DOE Office of Science’s National Science Bowl Kicks Off Saturday in Rockville

High school students from across Maryland will compete in a regional competition of the National Science Bowl, which the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science hosts annually to encourage today's youth to pursue careers in science and math. The winner of this weekend’s competition will advance to the National Finals to compete with teams across the country in April to become the National Champion.

Fifty teams from across the state will compete in the regional competition held on January 18, 2014, at Montgomery College (51 Mannakee Street in Rockville).

Since its inception 24 years ago, the Office of Science's National Science Bowl has attracted more than 225,000 students and has become one of the nation's largest science competitions. This year, about 9,000 more high school students and 5,000 middle school students are expected to participate, many of whom will likely go on to become scientists and teachers, engineers and leaders. But to reach the National Finals, they need to win their regional competition against teams of other bright students.

In the regional competitions, teams of four students each will be faced with tough mathematical problems and tested on their knowledge of a vast number of areas, including chemistry, biology, Earth and space science and physics. The team that wins the regional competition will earn a fully-paid trip to Washington, D.C. for the National Finals, scheduled for April 24-28. There, the students will be tested with more difficult questions, as well as a car race (for middle school competitors) and a science challenge (for high school students). The national champions will receive pretty amazing prizes.

Although the prizes will be much sought after, the real value of the Science Bowl is in the habits of discipline and deferred gratification that all of the students learn along the way; the benefits of hitting the books instead of the mall. Those hard-won habits of mind - and will - are likely to make the students successful in life long after the National Finals are over. And that's what the National Science Bowl is really all about.

Come out this Saturday to cheer on your favorite team!

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DOE's Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit http://science.energy.gov/, and for more information about the National Science Bowl, please visit http://science.energy.gov/wdts/nsb/.