For the week of April 9 - 15, 2003

Some members of The Community School Science Bowl team gathered recently. They are teacher Mike Wade, left, Brennan Rego, Joe Jesinger, Britt Williams, Elke Weithorn, Delamon Rego, Ben Roth, Andrew Durtschi and teacher Bob Doyle. Two of the students, Roth and Williams, were auditing the class for the day, and not shown in the photo are team members Reed Boeger and Josiah Drewien.

Students head to National Science Bowl

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By DANA DUGAN
Express Staff Writer

Seven Sun Valley students from The Community School are headed to Washington next month along with two other Idaho schools, for the 2003 Department of Energy’s 13^th Annual National Science Bowl.

The three high schools—Bishop Kelly of Boise (Class A-large schools) and Soda Springs (Class B-middle-size schools), and The Community School of Sun Valley (Class C-small schools)—will represent Idaho and the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental laboratory, which sponsored the Idaho tournament.

The Community School high school team has participated for three years, though this is the first time they’re heading to the Nationals.

The Community School team is made up of Reed Boeger, Josiah Drewein, Andrew Durtschi, Joe Jesinger, brothers Brennan and Delamon Rego and Elke Weithorn.

Scientists at all of DOE’s facilities as well as from other federal agencies and university consortia submit questions in the categories of chemistry, biology, physics, mathematics, astronomy, and general, earth, and computer science.

The Community School team won the state tournament by beating Liberty Christian from Jerome in the Class C Division.

Overall, 83 Idaho high schools competed in the fast-paced quiz bowl, the largest tournament among the approximately 60 DOE-sponsored regional competitions in the United States and Virgin Islands. Many of the Idaho teams began practicing as early as last November to prepare for preliminary regional tournaments that lead up to the state competition.

The INEEL Scholastic Tournament state championship, held at the Boise Centre on the Grove, was highlighted by a keynote address from Gov. Dirk Kempthorne to the approximately 350 students and teachers representing the 28 teams competing in the tournament finals.

The winning team from each regional competition receives an all expenses paid trip to Washington, D.C., for the National finals May 1-5.

In 2002, each of the top five winning teams was awarded science research trips to London and domestic DOE sites. Texas Instruments provided TI-89 calculators and computer based laboratories. IBM provided PDAs to the teachers of the coaches of the top five teams and to the team who best demonstrated good sportsmanship.

The top 18 teams also received $1,000 for their school physics laboratory.

 

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