A five-student team from Longfellow Middle School came away with one of the top prizes from the National Middle School Science Bowl, held June 22-24 in Denver, Colo. Longfellow placed third out of 30 competitors in this academic competition sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, earning a cash award for the school, as well as calculators and gift certificates for the individual team members. To win this honor, the students spent a day and a half answering questions about biology, geology, physical sciences, and math in a quiz show format. They also built and raced a model car powered by a hydrogen fuel cell. Over 100 middle school students from around the country participated in the Denver competition.
The Longfellow team consisted of Thalia Aoki, In Young Cho, Xavier Ferrier, Andrew Kim and Rohan Ramnath, all eighth graders. They were coached by science teacher Scott Van Benschoten. The team previously won the Virginia Regional Middle School Science Bowl held in Newport News in March, earning an all-expense paid trip to the national match.
The Department of Energy created the National Science Bowl to encourage secondary school students to excel in math and science, and to pursue careers in those fields.