National Ocean Science Bowl pre-regional Scrimmage held

Posted on February 15, 2012

February 11, 2012

St. Anns High School in Brooklyn, NY hosted the  pre-regional National Ocean Science Bowl scrimmage that was sponsored by NOAA-CREST on February 11th.
More than 20 HS students from Midwood HS; St. Anns HS; Bronx Science HS and Farmingdale HS gathered early morning – bracing against the cold weather to participate in the pre-regional scrimmage with zeal and enthusiasm.

About the Competition

The Pre-regional competition was a great way to prep the students for the REGIONAL (final tournament) National Ocean Science Bowl coming up on March 3, 2012 that will be held in Stony Brook, NY.  Sixteen schools (including these four) will represent the North East Regional Bowl, and the winning team goes for the Finals Competition that will be held at the Sheraton in Downtown Baltimore, MD April 19-22, 2012!

(http://www.nosb.org/)

After three rounds each of multiple choice and the total challenge rounds, Bronx Science won the Scrimmage, with Midwood, Farmingdale and St. Anns ranking 2nd, 3rd and 4th respectively. After observing the entire competition, in the opinion of Dr. Shakila Merchant, all students emerged as super winners and heroes!! All these pre-regional participating students will be felicitated during the Annual NOAA-CREST that will be held in April, 2012. Thanks to all the teachers and coaches for putting this pre-regional scrimmage together.

NOAA-CREST center, through a major funding from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) (www.noaa.gov), has adopted the Bronx Science since 2003 and has been sponsoring to train more than 10 students each year to participate in NOSB regionals. This competition certainly increases the students knowledge and inculcates an early interest in Ocean Sciences and possibly create next generation Oceanographers; Fisheries and Marine Biologists or Marine Policy Advisers, this is exactly what NOAA-CREST’s mission is  – “to increase Environmental Literacy and help create a National STEM talent pool to enhance and diversify the US STEM workforce”, which is in line with NOAA’s Education Mission and Goals.

President Obama recently said, “an American built to last is built upon 21st century skills for American workers.” At NOAA CREST, we believe STEM Education programs like NOAA-EPP are small-steps toward building a robust 21st century skill sets and STEM professionals.