A team from the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts won the Dolphin Challenge — the northern Texas regional competition of the National Ocean Sciences Bowl — for a second time in a row.
The National Ocean Sciences Bowl is a nationwide, high school science competition focused on marine issues and knowledges. Students demonstrate their knowledge of marine and coastal science by answering questions from biology, physics, chemistry, geology, geography, mathematics and the social sciences. Each team consists of four students plus an alternate and a coach.
ASMSA’s team won the Dolphin Challenge, which is a regional competition that was held Feb. 1-2 by the Texas Sea Grant College Program at the Texas A&M University campus in Galveston, Texas. The competition included teams from across Texas, including Houston, Dallas, Lubbock, Austin and San Antonio.
ASMSA won the Dolphin Challenge for the first time in 2017, but this year’s victory is an even more special accomplishment. There have traditionally been two regional competitions held in Texas. In addition to the Dolphin Challenge in Galveston, the Loggerhead Challenge was held in Port Aransas, Texas.
In the wake of Hurricane Harvey, both of the Texas competitions were cancelled in 2018. Only the Dolphin Challenge was reinstated resulting in a greater number of teams in this year’s competition.
ASMSA’s winning team was comprised of seniors Rachel Blocker of Vilonia, Alison Follmer of Eureka Springs, Luke Nester of Hot Springs, Emily Sullivan of Bryant and junior Emily Smith of Cabot.
They will compete against 24 other regional qualifiers in the NOSB finals on April 11-14 in Washington, D.C. In addition to the quiz bowl competition, there will be an additional Science Expert Briefing component, which is a simulation of a congressional hearing in which the student teams will research, prepare and present written testimony on a chosen piece of legislation related to the 2019 competition theme, which is Ocean Observing.
A second ASMSA team made it to the semifinals before being eliminated. That team included juniors Howard Orlina of Little Rock, Deo Scott of West Fork, Kasey Meyer of Center Ridge, Hadley Medlock of Alma and senior Grace Cowherd of Heber Springs.
“I was very lucky to be able to put together two very strong teams from ASMSA this year that both made it to the semifinal round of the regional competition,” said Dr. Lindsey Waddell, a geoscience and chemistry instructor at ASMSA and coach of both teams. “I am always very proud of how competitive our students are after only a single, one-semester course in oceanography and then several evening practices in the weeks leading up to the competition.
“Many schools have teams that include freshmen who are able to compete year after year. However, our students grasp concepts so quickly that I am able to cover far more chapters in a single semester than most college introductory-level oceanography courses.”
For more information on the National Ocean Sciences Bowl, visit nosb.org.