Science Bowl

Science Bowl is a high school academic competition, similar to Quiz Bowl, held in the United States. Two teams of four students each compete to answer various science-related questions. In order to determine which student has the right to answer the question, a buzzer system (or "lockout system") is used, similar to those seen on popular television game shows such as Jeopardy!. The National Science Bowl ("NSB") has been organized and sponsored by the United States Department of Energy since the competition's inception in 1991.

Contents

1 Subject Areas

2 Regional Competitions

3 Rules

3.1 General rules
3.2 Toss-ups
3.3 Bonuses ("Boni")
3.4 Scoring

4 Competition Format

4.1 Round Robin

4.1.1 Tiebreaks

4.2 Double Elimination

5 Sponsors

6 Results of the National Competition

7 See Also

8 External Links

Subject Areas

Questions are asked in the categories of Chemistry, Biology, Physics, Earth Science, Mathematics, Astronomy, Current Events, and General Science. General Science covers science-related items that don't fall under any specific type of science such as items common to all sciences. In late 2002, Computer Science was dropped as an official category; questions relating to computer science are now asked under either General Science or Math. The National Science Bowl organization recently announced the addition of a category for Current Events for the 2005 National Competition.

Regional Competitions

Each year, in early May, the National Science Bowl competition is held in Washington, DC. As of 2004, the competition has been hosted by the National 4-H Center in Chevy Chase, Maryland.

The winning team of each regional Science Bowl competition is invited to participate in the National Science Bowl all expenses paid. There are a number of regional competitions all over the United States; the exact amount changes from year to year. For example, in 2004 there were 64 regionals, while in 2003 there were 66 regionals. These figures count as two separate regionals the few "superregional" sites that are permitted to send two teams to the national competition (e.g. the Kansas City/St. Louis regional competition).

Typically, any high school that meets the eligibility rules of the National Science Bowl competition is permitted to register for any regional competition in the country, but no high school or student group may compete in multiple regionals. In addition, some regional competitions permit schools to register multiple teams. Teams comprised entirely of homeschooled students are also permitted to enter; a perennial qualifier to the national competition is the Edmond Home Cooperative from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Rules

This section is concerned with the rules of the national competition. The rules of regional competitions vary greatly. There are very few prescribed rules for regional competitions. Some regionals are run nearly identically to the national competition, while others use variations of the rules or different methods of scoring.

General rules

A team consists of four or five students from a single high school (unless the team is comprised entirely of homeschooled students). Only four students play at any one time, while the fifth is designated as the "alternate." Substitutions may be made at halftime and between rounds.

Two teams compete against each other in each match. Each match has exactly 25 questions (that is, 25 toss-ups and 25 corresponding bonuses). The match is over when all the toss-up questions have been read, or after two ten-minute halves have elapsed, whichever occurs first. The team with the most points at this time is the winner.

Toss-ups

Every match begins with a toss-up question. The moderator announces the subject of the question (see "Subject Areas" above), as well as its type (Multiple Choice or Short Answer). Once the moderator completes the reading of the question, students have five seconds to buzz in and give an answer. Students may buzz in at any time after the category has been read--there is no need to wait for the moderator to finish. However, there is a penalty for interrupting the moderator and giving an incorrect answer. Once a student from a team has buzzed in, that team may not buzz in again on that question. Conferring between members of a team is not allowed on toss-up questions; if conferring occurs on a question, the team is disallowed from answering that question. The rules regarding conferring are typically very strict: excessive noise, eye contact, or even noticeable shifts in position can be considered conferring, as they convey information to teammates.

An answer given by a student is ruled correct or incorrect by the moderator. On short answer questions, if the answer given differs from the official one, the moderator uses his or her judgment to make a ruling (which is subject to challenge by the competitors). On multiple choice questions, the answer given by the student is only correct if it matches the official answer exactly. Alternatively, the student may give the letter choice that corresponds to the correct answer. The letters W, X, Y and Z are used in lieu of A, B, C and D to avoid confusion between similar-sounding letters.

The decision to require multiple-choice answers to be exact has been a controversial one, but experience has shown that it is the best way to avoid complicated disputes during matches.

Bonuses ("Boni")

If a student answers a toss-up question correctly, that student's team receives a bonus question. The bonus question is always in the same category as the corresponding toss-up question. Since only that team has the opportunity to answer the bonus question, there is no need to buzz in to answer it. After the moderator finishes reading the question, the team has 20 seconds to answer. Conferring between team members is permitted, but the designated team captain must give the team's final answer.

The same rules apply to the judging of responses to bonus questions as apply to responses to toss-up questions. Once the team's answer has been ruled right or wrong, the moderator proceeds to the next toss-up question.

If neither team answers the toss-up question correctly, the bonus question is not read, and the moderator proceeds to the next toss-up question.

Scoring

The scoring at NSB is similar to scoring for Quiz Bowl, although with different numbers.

Correct responses to toss-up questions are worth 4 points each, and correct responses to bonus questions are worth 10 points each.

If a student buzzes in on a toss-up question before the moderator has completely read the question ("interrupting" the question) and responds incorrectly, then 4 points are awarded to the opposing team, and the question is re-read in its entirety so that the opposing team has an opportunity to buzz in.

Note the difference between interrupt scoring in Science Bowl and in Quiz Bowl: the interrupt penalty in Quiz Bowl is -5 to the interrupting team, while in Science Bowl it is +4 to the non-interrupting team.

Competition Format

This section is concerned with the format of the national competition only. As is the case with competition rules, the competition format varies greatly among the different regional competitions.

The national competition always consists of two stages: round robin and double elimination.

Round Robin

All competing teams are randomly arranged into several round robin groups of seven or eight teams each. Every team plays every other team in its group once, receiving 2 points for a win, 1 point for a tie, or 0 points for a loss. The top two teams from each group advance to the double elimination round.

Tiebreaks

In the event that two or more teams are tied for one of the top two spots in a round robin group, there are several tiebreak procedures, applied in the following order:

The head-to-head record of all the tied teams is compared. The team(s) with the best record against the other tied teams win(s) the tiebreak.
The team(s) with the fewest losses win(s) the tiebreak.
If the top two teams still cannot be determined, the following procedures are used:
- If more than two teams are still tied, each team is placed in a separate room and is read ten toss-up questions. Each team's score is determined by the number of questions answered correctly minus the number answered incorrectly. The team(s) with the highest score win(s) the tiebreak.
- If exactly two teams are still tied, the two teams compete head-to-head, receiving five toss-up questions (no bonus questions are used). All the usual toss-up rules are in effect, including the interrupt penalty. The team with the higher score wins the tiebreak.

If a tie still exists after the third tiebreak step, the third step is reapplied until the tie is resolved.

Double Elimination

Approximately 16 teams advance from the round robin (depending on the number of round robin groups). In 2004, exactly 16 teams advanced, while in 2003 and 2002, 18 teams advanced. A team's position in the draw is determined by random draw; teams are not seeded in any way. The competition then proceeds like a typical double-elimination tournament. Unlike in the round robin, a match in double elimination cannot be tied. If a match is tied at the end of regulation, overtime periods of five questions each are played until the tie is broken.

The double elimination system produces a first-place, second-place, third-place and fourth-place team, as well as two teams tied for fifth (since they are eliminated at the same time). At the NSB, these two teams play each other in an additional round to determine who wins the fifth-place position.

Results of the National Competition

The top five teams (out of 63) at the 2005 National Science Bowl were

The top five teams (out of 64) at the 2004 National Science Bowl were

The full double elimination bracket from the 2004 competition is shown below. Note that the red numbers are not seed numbers, but match numbers to be used for reference in the bottom half of the bracket (the "loser's bracket").

The top five teams (out of 66) at the 2003 National Science Bowl were

The top five teams (out of 64) at the 2002 National Science Bowl were

The winning teams from the years 1991-2001 (number of teams participating in parantheses):

2001 (61 teams) North Hollywood High School (North Hollywood, California)
2000 (60 teams) duPont Manual High School (Louisville, Kentucky)
1999 (53 teams) Montgomery Blair High School (Silver Spring, Maryland)
1998 (48 teams) Valley High School (West Des Moines, Iowa)
1997 (45 teams) Venice High School (Los Angeles, California)
1996 (53 teams) Venice High School (Los Angeles, California)
1995 (55 teams) Van Nuys High School (Van Nuys, California)
1994 (51 teams) Westminster School (Atlanta, Georgia)
1993 (43 teams) Albany High School (Albany, California)
1992 (29 teams) Lubbock High School (Lubbock, Texas)
1991 (18 teams) Lubbock High School (Lubbock, Texas)

External Links

Official National Science Bowl Website (http://www.scied.science.doe.gov/nsb/) - includes registration information for all regional competitions
United States Department of Energy (http://www.doe.gov/)
Science Bowl Test Program (http://www.netl.doe.gov/coolscience/funstuff/sb_test.html) - Windows program that asks Science Bowl questions

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Categories: Competitions | Quizbowl