Newtown High School students on the “Newtown A” team were thrilled to earn the title of “2020 Regional Champion,” March 7, at the regional competition for the US Department of Energy Office of Science’s National Science Bowl (NSB). The competition, held at the University of Connecticut, Storrs, won team members Constantine Kyprianou, Quinn McAndrew, Sophia Guizzo, Jackson Hebner, and Julian Totir an all-expenses paid trip to Washington, DC for the April 30 to May 4 National Science Bowl competition.

But that elation took a downturn in mid-April when the US Department of Energy, Office of Science released the following statement:

“Due to the increasing health concerns and escalating developments that have occurred over the last several weeks regarding the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak, including the President’s declaration of a National emergency and the recommendation by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to cancel or postpone in-person events that consist of 50 people or more, the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Office of Science (SC) have decided to cancel the National Science Bowl® (NSB) finals events scheduled for April 30 – May 4, 2020, in Washington, DC.

“The DOE Office of Science is currently assessing the feasibility of a smaller-scale academic event for 2020 winning regional teams that would be accommodated through virtual or teleconference participation.”

“Obviously this isn’t what the students had hoped for,” shared NHS Science Bowl Coach Chris Carley in an e-mail to The Newtown Bee on April 21, “and our seniors in particular are disappointed.”

But he also shared some improved news for his team taking part in the competition that he described in March as “a Jeopardy-style competition where students need to demonstrate quick recall of science topics and math skills.”

“Fortunately the Department of Energy is trying to salvage some aspect of the National Science Bowl competition by using an alternative plan. For now, instead of going down to DC and competing with teams directly, we will be using online conferencing to have our student team answer Science Bowl questions with no direct competition. They will use the total earned score to rank teams against each other, and eliminate teams down to the top four. They are examining if it will be possible to have the top four teams come to Washington, DC in August for a final competition, though this is dependent on the quarantine status in the country leading up to it,” Carley stated.

“We’re glad that the DOE didn’t just scrap the whole thing and are trying to make it work on some level,” he added.

For more information about the National Science Bowl, visit science.osti.gov/wdts/nsb.