NCSSM team wins National Science Bowl

NCSSM team wins National Science Bowl

By: Matthew E. Milliken
The Herald-Sun
mmilliken@heraldsun.com


DURHAM - A team from the N.C. School of Science and Mathematics won the National Science Bowl Monday morning.

The team beat out two competitors from California in the championship round: Mira Loma High School of Sacramento, the runners-up, and North Hollywood High School, the third-place team.

Science and Math team members realized with some questions remaining in their last match that they had clinched the title. It was a proud moment for the students, who had talked of their admiration for past National Science Bowl winners.

"I think at that point we kind of realized that wow, our name's going to be on the website, and we worked so hard for it," said Akhil Jariwala, the team captain.

The Science and Math roster consists of Jariwala (senior, Raleigh), Christian Johnson (senior, Chapel Hill), Bryce Taylor (junior, Winston-Salem), Patrick Yang (senior, Cary) and Alex Yoo (junior, Raleigh). The team is coached by Leslie Brinson.

Their prize is a trip to Central America, where they will get to study ecosystems in Belize. The students will also get Texas Instruments gear, which was awarded to all the top high- and middle-school teams. All 16 high schools and eight middle schools in the semifinals will get $1,000 for their school science departments.

Jariwala said that having a well-rounded quintet was key to the victory. His and Yang's strengths are earth science and chemistry, while Taylor was the go-to guy for math questions and Johnson was strong on biology.

"None of us could have won this without every single other person being there," Jariwala said. "And in that sense I think it's one of the most impressive things that -- that I've done, just because we just found a way to work so well as a team. And everything kind of fell into place."

A fortunate taste in television viewing played a role, too. When the team was asked a question Sunday about a biochemistry experiment involving amino acids, Johnson was able to supply the correct answer -- "isoelectric points" -- because he enjoys the Food Network show "Good Eats."

First Lady Michelle Obama asked some questions in Monday's middle school championship, the final portion of the National Science Bowl competition. She shook hands with the Science and Math team and told Brinson that she should be very proud of the group, Jariwala said.

Obama is "very, very sociable, such a nice person," he said.

The National Science Bowl, which is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, involved 68 regional high school championship teams and 37 regional middle school champions. The fields were winnowed to 16 and eight, respectively, after which three finalists emerged from the upper division and two from the lower division.

The School of Science and Mathematics group arrived in Washington, D.C., Thursday and is scheduled to fly back to Durham today. Science Bowl-related events included a scavenger hunt on the National Mall, a lecture on "Is God a Mathematician?" by an astrophysicist, a round of hands-on science problems, and three rounds of competition beginning Sunday. The top 16 high-school teams started competing Sunday at 10 a.m. and finished around 9:30 p.m.

Jariwala's group planned to spend Monday night socializing with competitors.

"One of the greatest parts about coming to a competition like this is getting to see so many people that are just so talented in everything they do," he said. "Every single team has got extremely qualified members that are some of the best in their schools, and we're just going to hang out and have a lot of fun."

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