On Saturday, March 6th, 2010, high school students from all over the state competed in the 8th Annual Hawaii Regional competition for the National Ocean Science Bowl (NOSB), called the "Aloha Bowl".

Punahou School won the competition, and did a fantastic job representing Hawaii in the National Ocean Sciences Bowl, held at the University of South Florida in St. Petersburg, Florida on April 23-25th. They came in 5th place, out of 25 teams. Way to go guys!

The team included, Calder Atta, Shauna Ekimura, Eric Liaw, Maile Pujalet, Ian Schools, and Coach Dave Strang.

This educational program was developed to stimulate interest in the ocean sciences among high school students and demonstrate to the public the importance of the oceans in our daily lives. One of the long-term goals of the program is to foster the next generation of marine scientists, educators and policy makers for the ocean sciences.

During the competition, students are asked three types of questions: toss-up "buzzer" questions, bonus questions and team-challenge questions. Unlike the oral questions, the team-challenge question is written out and handed to both teams in at the completion of the first buzzer round. These questions require higher cognitive skills, often use visual aids such as charts, maps, and graphs and the students work together to earn as many points as possible, which may make the difference between winning or losing the round of competition. Question difficulty increases as the competition progresses.

To register your team for the 2011 Aloha Bowl, or for more information, please contact Tara Hicks Johnson, SOEST Outreach Specialist, at 956-3151, or hickst@hawaii.edu

Information and pictures from this event can be found at http://www.nosb.org/