A five-member team from South Middle School participated in the Department of Energy (DOE) National Science Bowl in Washington D.C. from April 27–28, winning The Cyber Challenge and being among the top eight teams overall.
Team members Eric Pei, Tristan Wan, Erin Wong, Samantha Zeltser, and Richard Zhuang won the Cyber Challenge competition and placed in the top eight overall in the National Science Bowl, earning South Middle School’s best finish at the this national event to date.
The event included two days of competition. On April 28, the South Middle team won the National Middle School Cyber Challenge, a “Jeopardy-like” question-and-answer-style Capture the Flag system. The team was awarded a trophy for their first-place finish and $500 for their school’s science research program.
The Cyber Challenge was developed through the Consortium-Enabling Cybersecurity Opportunities and Research (CECOR) organization and the Cyber Defenders program at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
On April 27, teams participated in the academic portion of the National Science Bowl competition, which features a fast-paced, question-and-answer format that covers a wide range of science disciplines, including biology, chemistry, Earth science, physics, energy, and math.
The South Middle team placed in the “elite eight” of this bracket-style competition, out of 48 teams from across the country.
The South Middle Science Bowl team is coached by Doris Stanick, an Earth science teacher at South Middle, and Diane Caplain, a biology teacher at South Middle. The team earned a spot in the National Science Bowl after winning the Regional Science Bowl at Brookhaven National Laboratory on March 2.
The Department of Energy National Science Bowl (NSB), established in 1991, is one of the nation’s largest science competitions. This year, 48 middle school teams and more than 250 students competed in the national event, which features the top teams from regional tournaments held across the country.
Submitted by Great Neck Public Schools
