Calloway County Middle School of Murray, Kentucky, won the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) West Kentucky Regional Science Bowl February 15.
Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office
February 19, 2019
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PADUCAH, Ky. — Calloway County Middle School of Murray, Kentucky, won the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) West Kentucky Regional Science Bowl February 15 in Paducah. The five-member team will travel to Washington, D.C., to compete in the DOE National Science Bowl® Finals April 25- 29. They will be joining Bowling Green's Gatton Academy, which won the high school competition on February 1, in representing western Kentucky and southern Illinois in their respective divisions.
The all-day Science Bowl tournament, a quick-recall, fast-paced question-and-answer contest, quizzes middle-school students on their knowledge of life science, physical science, Earth and space science, energy and mathematics.
“We took time throughout the year to practice math and science. We spent a lot of time focusing on those areas and later began practicing with buzzers and practice matches,” said Calloway County Middle School Coach Scott Pile. “We are grateful to the Department of Energy for the opportunity for our students to compete against some of the country’s finest middle school science teams.”
Lone Oak Middle School finished second and Paducah Middle School finished third in the regional competition. Other middle schools competing at the University of Kentucky College of Engineering-Paducah Campus were Lick Creek Elementary School and Massac County and Murphysboro Middle Schools in Illinois. Kentucky teams represented included St. Mary, Ballard County, Heath, and Reidland Middle Schools.
“There are so many talented students in western Kentucky and the National Science Bowl® gives these middle school students an opportunity to take their talents to the national competition in April,” said DOE Paducah Site Lead Jennifer Woodard.
A series of 111 regional middle school and high school tournaments are held across the country from January through March. Winners of these regional competitions advance to the DOE National Science Bowl® Finals, where thousands of students will compete. In addition to the academic competition, students attend presentations by well-known scientists on current topics in math and sciences. Students will also have the opportunity to compete in a recreational activity called the Cyber Science Challenge.
Sponsors of the 11th-Annual DOE Regional Science Bowl include DOE, the University of Kentucky College of Engineering—Paducah Campus, the Paducah Area Chamber of Commerce, Petter Business Systems, Four Rivers Nuclear Partnership, Greater Paducah Economic Development, Beltline Electric, Geosyntec Consultants, Health Works Medical, Paducah Water, Insolves, Swift and Staley, Veolia, Pepsi Mid-America, Northwind, Pro2Serve, HDR, Geo Consultants, Chase Environmental Group, Mid-America Conversion Services, Summit Environmental Services, Marshall County Golf Cart, Domtar and Crystal Springs Water*.
The event is sponsored and organized by employees and contractors of DOE’s Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office. More than 100 volunteers serve as moderators, judges, technical advisors and scorekeepers. DOE’s Office of Science manages the National Science Bowl Finals competition. More information is available at http://science.energy.gov/wdts/nsb/.
*Listing of event sponsors or contributors does not denote or imply endorsement by the Department of Energy, the Government of the United States, or their contractors.