Takoma Park Middle School students finish second at National Science Bowl

This neighboring school to mine recently placed second at this prestigous science competition. Go, Takoma Park!

Takoma Park Middle School students finish second at annual National Science Bowl

(Mark Gail/ The Washington Post ) - Noah Singer (left), David Wu (center) and Anish Senapati (right), members of the Takoma Park Middle School team, discuss an answer during the National Science Bowl finals at the National Building Museum on Monday in Washington.

By Lynh Bui,

Apr 29, 2013 04:32 PM EDT

The Washington Post

They had to quickly spout knowledge about Punnett squares, diffractive scattering, Gila monsters and vectors. They also had to name the parts of a cell where RNA is made, then calculate the product of 84 and 96.

After days of intense competition, students from Takoma Park Middle School took second place in the 2013 U.S. Department of Energy National Science Bowl on Monday morning in the District. They lost the championship to students from Indiana’s Creekside Middle School.

 

“The other team, they were full of surprises,” said Takoma Park team captain David Wu, 13.
The team of five 7th-graders from Montgomery County said they were disappointed with the loss but are already thinking about improving their game to compete again next year in the academic tournament, which features rounds of fast-paced questions about all areas of science.

“We’ve figured out a lot that we did wrong and stuff to work on for next year,” said 13-year-old Noah Singer.

The Takoma Park students won $1,000 for their school’s science department for landing among the top eight teams. Other members of the team included Anish Senapati, 12; John Lathrop, 13; and Elliot Kienzle, 13.

It was a tough road to capture the runner-up spot. More than 5,000 middle school students from about 1,020 teams around the country competed in regional academic bowls this year. Only about 110 of those teams were eligible to compete for the middle school and high school national championships.

“I’m so proud of them,” said Takoma Park coach Rebecca Epling. “They’re collaborative, they all have their strengths and weaknesses, but they all support each other in play and they’re such good friends.”

Students from Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology also won $1,000 after making it to the top 16 of the high school competition. The team from the Fairfax County magnet school went undefeated for four rounds of competition, but it couldn’t break into the final eight.
The team from Mira Loma High School in Sacramento won the championship title.

Locally, teams from BASIS DC and Woodrow Wilson High School, both in the District, and Nysmith School in Herndon also competed.

The Department of Energy started the National Science Bowl in 1991 to encourage students to study and pursue careers in science, math, engineering and teaching.