NCS Team Takes on Ocean Science

Erin Hays ‘11 (captain), Amy Alemu ‘10, Katherine Nabel ’10, and Sheridan Renzi ’10 joined forces to represent NCS at this regional competition for the National Ocean Sciences Bowl. Held at American University, the meet has a round-robin format. The NCS team competed in six rounds against six different high school teams from: Wilson; North Hagerstown; State College, PA; Thomas Jefferson; and two Montgomery Blair teams.

The NCS team answered multiple-choice and short-answer questions about physical, chemical and biological oceanography, socioeconomic issues, marine policy, the history of marine exploration, marine technology, and marine biology. The girls did particularly well on the team challenge questions, in which they were given two short-answer questions to write out and answer together. In most of their rounds the NCS team earned more points than their opponents on these written comprehension questions.

While the NCS team did not make it to the final rounds, they had a wonderful and fun day, as did faculty advisors Jennifer Lear and Mollie Morneau. We are all proud of Erin, Amy, Katherine, and Sheridan for their blue-water smarts!

The National Ocean Sciences Bowl (NOSB) is a national academic competition for high schools on topics related to the study of oceans. Since its start in 1998 in honor of the International Year of the Ocean, the competition has grown to include 25 regional competition locations with 300 schools and over 2,000 students participating annually. The NOSB is managed by the Consortium for Ocean Leadership, which represents leading oceanographic institutions, universities, and aquaria.

--Jennifer Lear and Mollie Morneau