Science Bowl Regionals

After a year of practicing and studying, the Van Nuys Science Bowl teams competed in the 2016 Regional Science Bowl XXIV at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) on Feb. 20. Science Bowl is a fast-paced buzzer competition, much like jeopardy, in which two teams of five students from different schools face off to answer complex college-level math, science and technology questions. A round robin format is used for the preliminary rounds in the morning and a double elimination format for the final rounds for the teams that move on to the afternoon.

Like past years, Van Nuys High School brings two teams to the competition, an A-team and a B-Team, which are led by Coach Ms. Kim and Captain Keshan Huang this year. A-team is comprised of Keshan Huang, Taha Maksud, Rafael Calleja, Sarah Jho and Joseph Kim; B-team is comprised of Woo Han, Claire Lee, Tyler Jung, Micaela Soria and Arif Latif. B-team unfortunately did not make it to the double elimination round, so they participated in the “hands-on” competition. On the bright side, A-team advanced to the double elimination round by placing in top two teams of their division, alongside Harvard-Westlake A-team; Van Nuys A-team ended up ranking in the top ten out of over 40 teams that participated in the competition.

The team practices once or twice a week after school for a couple of hours in Ms. Kim’s classroom. They go through practice questions and teach each other tough concepts. As a predominately student-run team, the team members not only study hard in the process but also enjoy the learning and bonding with their teammates.

“It’s truly been an honor to serve as their captain in my junior year; I don’t know any captain that has in the past. One thing that I have learned from past captains is that… there is no limit to success if you put your heart and soul into it” said Huang.