High School Students to Compete in Blue Crab Bowl at ODU
The Blue Crab Bowl, the Virginia regional qualifying competition for the National Ocean Science Bowl (NOSB), will be held at Old Dominion University March 5 and 6. Teams from 16 high schools will be tested on their knowledge of ocean-related subjects.
Each year, this event is made possible by a partnership between ODU's Department of Ocean, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences and Virginia Sea Grant's Marine Advisory Program at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS), College of William and Mary.
The winning team from the Blue Crab Bowl will face 24 other regional champion teams in the National Ocean Sciences Bowl in April at St. Petersburg, Fla.
Preliminary activities Friday, March 5, will include a welcome by ODU Provost Carol Simpson. Competition rounds are Saturday. An initial round-robin portion of the event begins at 9 a.m.; double-elimination rounds begin at noon and the championship rounds at 2:35 p.m. The awards ceremony will follow immediately after the final round, at about 4:30 p.m.
All segments of the event will take place in the Batten Arts and Letters Building and be open to the public.
Teams will be from these high schools: Bishop Sullivan Catholic, Virginia Beach; Churchland, Portsmouth; Governor's School for Science & Technology, Hampton; Maury, Norfolk; Isle of Wight Academy, Isle of Wight County; Grafton, York County; Gloucester, Gloucester County; Patrick Henry, Hanover County; St. Christopher's, Richmond; Louisa County High School; Fredericksburg Academy; Fauquier High School, Fauquier County; Piedmont Governor's School for Math, Science & Technology, Henry County; Prince Edward County High School; and Seton, Manassas.
Victoria Hill, an ODU assistant research professor in oceanography, is assisting in coordinating the Blue Crab Bowl. The coordinator is Carol Hopper Brill, a marine education specialist with the Virginia Sea Grant program. For more about the bowl, visit www.vims.edu/bcb.
Hill said the ocean-related questions posed to the students will test knowledge of biology, chemistry, physics, navigation, geography and also history and literature. More than 50 faculty members, staffers and graduate students from VIMS and ODU donate their time to ensure the success of the competition, she added.