Last month, SLOCA students once again participated in the Central Coast Regional Middle School Science Bowl! Our science teacher, Paige Bartel, was able to snap a few photos and today she shares about this exciting competition:
We had two teams compete in the Science Bowl this year – an eighth grade team and a seventh grade team. We also had two sixth graders who served as our alternates, and they played with both teams.
8th Grade Team: Owen Lacey, Quinn Ferririni, Caedin Hilton, Sammy Rein
7th Grade Team: Ben Weaver, Enrique Lecha, Eli Newman
6th Grade Alternates: Owen Turner, Jordyn Cheatum
Both teams played exceptionally well!
The 7th grade team lost their first round, but the play experience proved extremely valuable – they won their next two rounds! This earned them a spot in their groups tie-breaker. They proceeded through the first two rounds, but lost by 1-point in the 3rd tie-breaker round.
The 8th grade team easily won their first match – their practice and study time showed! They played a fast paced second round, and were down by only 2 points when the judge ran out of questions with TWO WHOLE MINUTES left on the clock (each question is worth 4 points, and each bonus is worth 10 points). Watching those last two silent minutes pass, knowing there was no way to close the gap, might have been the longest two minutes of my life. It was a tough loss, and kept them out of the tie-breaking round.
Both teams also competed in the MathAmazement Challenges, and our 8th Grade team were the first to complete all the challenges in the time allotted! Watching them work together to prove pythagoreans theorem with napkins may have been by favorite part of the day.
In the end, I felt like the real winner. Our SLOCA kids were kind, considerate, and gracious. They congratulated and shook hands with every team they played, they were humble winners, and great sportsmen… and they demonstrated an understanding of the sciences that blew me away! I loved just getting to hang out with them all day.
Thank you, Mrs. Bartel, for leading our students in this event, and for inspiring a love of science in our middle schoolers!
