Science Bowl Tournament 2024
The Science Bowl is a high school and middle school academic competition that serves to test students’ knowledge in various fields, including biology, chemistry, earth science, physics, energy, and math. It operates on a fast-paced buzzing system, similar to those used on television shows. The moderator reads a question, and teams compete by buzzing in to answer. Scoring works as teams are rewarded points for correct answers but are deducted for any incorrect answers. Recently, OHS’s Science Bowl Club met in person for their regional tournament, which was located at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in San Mateo County.
In total, the regional competition consisted of 28 teams, each accompanied by their faculty coach (typically a science teacher) and a few parents. Teams consisted mostly of upperclassmen—for OHS, the team consisted of Keshav Narang (‘24), Hannah Bowman (‘25), Nathan Bowman (‘25), Arin Parsa (‘25), and Josh Tittiranonda (‘26). The day before the tournament, the team had a get-together (and even invited friends!) to practice at the OHS Redwood City campus, which was their first time meeting in person.
The tournament lasted the entire day, from 8:00 AM until elimination. The students’ morning started in front of SLAC, and team pairings and brackets (in other words, matchups with other schools) were released at 8:30. Then, from 9:00 to 12:30, teams completed 6 round-robin rounds (round-robin rounds are formatted such that each team will compete against every other team in the tournament). Volunteers were assigned to each room to keep track of time, score, read questions, and moderate. At 12:30, the students had lunch, which was cafeteria-style. Unfortunately, throughout multiple close rounds, OHS’s team lost by 2 points and found themselves eliminated. This meant that they were unable to proceed to double elimination, which was the second part of the tournament. Although OHS’s team didn’t advance, they were able to take a shuttle bus for a tour of the SLAC facility before heading home, learning about its valuable history and capabilities!
For Josh Tittiranonda (‘26), one word to explain the experience is “electrifying.” As a veteran Science Bowler who’s competed in a total of 6 tournaments since middle school, Josh still finds each competition thrilling. He explains, “Right from the first tossup question, you can feel the adrenaline coursing through your veins and your heart thumping, thumping thumping, as you try to produce an answer. Each point scored feels like a million bucks, and each question missed is like a blow. The Science Bowl experience is just not like anything else.” One of Josh’s fondest memories from competing is their day-long team practice: “It was just so fun, we got to spend pretty much a whole day hanging out, learning, reading questions, and doing science bowl! What could be better than that? And Dr. McKale even brought a Van de Graaff generator, that was pretty cool too. We ended with a team dinner and the next day it was off to the tournament!”
In Josh’s time competing in Science Bowl, he’s been able to make meaningful reflections on past tournaments. For instance, in middle school, he competed at Sandia Labs in a tournament similar to this one. Due to COVID-19, the remainder of Josh’s middle school tournaments were online. Josh expresses, “I much prefer the in-person science bowl tournaments to the online ones—it’s more exciting and you really feel the heat of the competition. Plus you don’t have to worry about lag!” Similarly, in comparison to practicing over Adobe Connect, “in-person practice was definitely more intense” and “felt more connected.” Typically, the team meets online weekly to go through practice sets provided by the Science Bowl.
Overall, the tournament was a success, emphasizing the strength of the Science Bowl community and giving students valuable experience that, as Josh puts it, “will help propel us further in the future!” The team performed well, given that most of their team members had only participated in tournaments once or twice—even having one completely new member. Furthermore, Josh notes, “By the end of our rounds, our synergy as a team had definitely improved and in that way, I see this tournament as a success.” OHS’s team was even able to recognize a few other teams from their previous tournament, the Berkeley Science Bowl Tournament. Within the event itself, there were volunteers to help run the event, ranging from Science Bowl veterans, to college students, SLAC employees, and more. Josh gratefully adds, “We were very lucky to have them.” Josh additionally extends his gratitude towards all of the team’s parents for their support—“I’ve got to thank my, and all the team’s, parents for their amazing support and also for devoting the day and helping transport us!”
All in all, this tournament served as a prime example of the Science Bowl’s culture: challenging, collaborative, and supportive. To conclude, Josh conveys, “I think I speak for all of us when I say Science Bowl really teaches you the importance of teamwork. Science Bowl is a competition that covers an extremely broad variety of topics—no one person can know everything all by themselves! As a team, we must leverage each of our specialty subjects and ultimately work together to find success in the competition. Every single one of our players is indispensable, and we would not have been able to perform without good teamwork.” A big congratulations to the OHS’s Science Bowl team for their hard work and impressive achievements!