On Saturday, January 25, Maple School’s Science Team with science teacher and coach Robin Dombeck, went face-to-face and beat almost every team in Illinois at Argonne Lab’s Science Bowl competition. The team emerged eight hours (and more than 250 questions) later to clinch second place for the US region!
Ms. Dombeck reported that Oswego East High School was abuzz with science as Argonne scientists and engineers introduced themselves and talked about their work before officiating at each Science Bowl Competition round. Maple Science Team members had a chance to hear about many science and engineering careers and imagine themselves in these possible futures.
Fifteen regional teams competed at the event hosted by Argonne National Laboratory beginning with a practice round. Each team then competed against other schools in “pool-play”, where teams in that pool played once against the others. Maple played the other schools in our pool, winning all but one round. Maple’s team one of the top two scoring teams from the pool and moved on to the final four.
"In the final four, the competition was tough, but Maple won over Plum Grove Middle School and then Maple continued to compete strong, doing almost the unbelievable. The won the next round against Daniel Wright Junior High School. Daniel Wright's team then went to the challenger's bracket and won to face Maple's team again, this time in the final two rounds," said Ms. Dombeck.
She explained that the tension was high as Maple and Daniel Wright volleyed answers and points for the entire round. Maple scored within two questions of the lead, but ultimately Daniel Wright won, necessitating another round to serve as a tie-breaker. The end result of this tie-breaker round was that after eight solid hours of competing, Daniel Wright took first place, with Maple Mustangs securing an Illinois regional second-place win.
Coach and Maple science teacher Robin Dombeck was extremely proud of her team.
“This face to face competition challenges all of the kids' stamina and knowledge. They need to think quickly, race to buzz in, and correctly state an answer in about four seconds in front of a large audience. The competition is among the best of peers from other schools, and the subject matter is high-level science and math. The audience sat on the edge of their seats, realizing that the very next question could change the outcome of the round. Maple's Mustangs met this challenge with strength, resilience, and good teamwork. All of Maple is so very proud of these students. Their practice time, individual studying, strategizing, and their grit and determination in a stressful day of competition paid off, as Maple students showed themselves to be true champions!” she exclaimed.
Maple’s Science Competition Team includes the following students: Roger Yang (Captain,) Yaeji Hyang, Harper Kaplan, Audrey Lam, Evan D’Souza. Challenger Team Members (who were also invited to the Argonne Regional to compete in a practice round and support the competitors) are: David Liss, Rina Matsunaga, Claire Noh, Sungmin Park, Chloe Zhu, Kieran Layland, Samantha Field, Anna Koziol, Eubene In, Hanning Zhu. Managers are: Lauren Lee, Stephanie Mei, Shradha Mehrotra, David Lipkind, Atchaya Muthupalaniappan.
Since 1991, U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has hosted a National Science Bowl academic competition. It is an event that tests students' knowledge in a range of science disciplines including biology, chemistry, earth science, energy, physics, astronomy and math in a fast paced quiz bowl style, head-to-head competition. Now in its 29th year, the DOE National Science Bowl® is one of the nation's largest science competitions; more than 265,000 students have competed since 1991.
