After winning the regional science bowl, the Science Club traveled to Washington DC to represent California in the 22nd national science bowl.  The squad placed third for the team challenge and fifth in their division.  There were 69 teams in total.

Up until this point, the Science club had never competed in DC. Team captain and senior Marie Lu said, “I think we did really well for our first time. It was a really good learning experience.”

Although they didn’t make it into semifinals, Lu felt the team competed very well.  She said, “Both Ryan [Smolkin] and Kevin [Peng] performed well but we also couldn’t have done it without Megan [Zhu] and Christina [Beck].”

Beck said, “We did better than we expected in regionals.  Just getting the chance to go to nationals is a great experience.” Each team was guaranteed to play seven rounds.  The top two teams overall advanced to the semifinals, according to Lu.

Earlier this year, the Campolindo Science Club won Regionals.  Regional tournaments have been hosted since January, in which teams were tested in a jeopardy style competition on various sciences.   Qualifying teams from every state proceeded to compete in the national tournament.

The event was sponsored by the US Department of Energy.  Teams from every state participate in the competition and players are given five seconds to answer a question, explained Beck.

Lexington High School from Lexington, MA, placed first in the competition.   The national champion is awarded a nine day educational excursion in Alaska.