MHS Team to Compete in National Competition
(Focus is excited to showcase the work of the Marshfield High School journalism club! This article comes from junior and editor, Bailey Cichon.)
Following success at the Lake Sturgeon Bowl, the Marshfield High School Ocean Sciences Bowl team, with coach Paul Herder, will be traveling to Oregon State University to compete at the National Ocean Science Bowl competition.
The Ocean Sciences Bowl is a trivia-based bowl that is sponsored by both the government and private industries to promote knowledge about the ocean. This year, the competition’s theme is “Marine Renewable Energy.”
In Oregon, the Marshfield High School team will be competing against 25 teams to win a research trip and a scholarship.
“Oceanography is really cool because it’s the intersection of all of the different sciences,” explained Sophomore Suhaas Bhat. “You’ve got Earth Science, Physics, Chemistry, and Biology all combined into one field. So rather than being really specialized when you study a science, you’re basically taking a blend of all the sciences and you’re putting them into one field.”
“No matter what interest you have, you’ll find something interesting in Oceanography,” added Sophomore Muhammad Abidi.
“This competition helps to promote the overlooked importance of the ocean which has an enormous impact on our world,” said Junior David Gui.
To prepare for competitions, students study online resources and text books. Club meetings consist of mock competitions so that the students can practice answering questions at competition speed. In order to qualify for the National Ocean Sciences Bowl competition, students must complete a 40-page essay as well as beat regional teams in buzzer rounds of a trivia-based competition.
“[The National Ocean Science Bowl] wanted to expose student to more marine-based legislation at a National level,” explained Gui. “They introduce a bill that was recently not passed in congress and they ask each team to write a 40-page report addressing different recommendations for improving the bill so that it could be passed and have a meaningful impact on developing the marine landscape in the US.”
Senior Emma Raasch said, “The Ocean Science Bowl gives us an opportunity to learn about something that we are not directly exposed to [in Marshfield].”
“It’s important for students in the Midwest who are not by an ocean to be exposed to [Ocean Sciences]. It really develops our interest in things that are not really promoted on a larger scale [in our community],” explained Abidi. “I always thought that the ocean was just a bunch of water, but I’ve learned that it really makes an impact on our lives.”
The MHS NOSB team will compete on April 20-23 in Corvallis, Oregon.
