2008 Bay Scallop Bowl Results 1st Place - Churchville-Chili High School Bill Wise,Sean Tanner,Brendan Lineham,Steven Brown,Julie Morningstar,Patrick Chamberlain,Karl Biedlingmaier,David Conover Sixteen teams of high school students from throughout New York State competed at the 2008 Bay Scallop Bowl on Saturday, 09 February 2008. At the end of a long day, the team from Churchville-Chili High School (near Rochester, New York) won the competition for the second straight year. The victory by Churchville-Chili (note: long i's in Chili) was especially impressive in that all members of their 2007 championship team graduated in June 2007 and this year's team was an all-rookie group. Each member of the Churchville-Chili team takes home a $1,000 cash prize. The team is now preparing for the 2008 National Ocean Sciences Bowl Final Competition, scheduled for Seward, Alaska at the end of April. Second place honors were taken by a hard-charging team from Mt. Sinai High School, who fell just two points short in an exciting final match with the Churchville-Chili team. Each player on the Mt. Sinai team receives $750 cash prize. St. Ann's School from Brooklyn Heights finished 3rd in the competition, team members receiving $500 individual cash prizes. The competition went off smoothly but for a slight SNAFU at the outset. One of the sixteen teams mistakenly drove to the Stony Brook Southampton campus, 40 miles east of Main Campus, where the competition was actually being held! However, all's well that ends well. They booked it back to Main Campus and the competition began after a manageable delay. Mid-afternoon ice cream sundaes are usually the hit of the day at the Bay Scallop Bowl, but this year the Mexican fiesta lunch, like the team from Mt. Sinai, ran a close second. Everyone feasted on authentic Mexican fajitas, corn salad, tacos, tortilla chips, salsa and other goodies while regrouping for the afternoon competition. The students from Leon M. Goldstein High School (Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn) conducted themselves with grace and good humor throughout the competition and they were a unanimous choice for the event's Sportsmanship Award. Their prize? Copies of three books authored (and signed) by internationally-renowned marine conservationist and SoMAS adjunct faculty member Dr. Carl Safina: Song for the Blue Ocean, Voyage of the Turtle and Eye of the Albatross. The Bay Scallop Bowl is administered by the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences of Stony Brook University. Persons interest in learning more about the event should contact event organizers Kim Knoll (kknoll@notes.cc.sunysb.edu) or Bill Wise (wwise@notes.cc.sunysb.edu) 2008 Bay Scallop Bowl Photo Gallery

2007 National Ocean Sciences Bowl Results 1st Place - Contoocook Valley Regional High School, New Hampshire 2nd Place - Cranston High School West, Rhode Island 3rd Place - Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School, Massachusetts 2007 National Ocean Sciences Bowl Photo Gallery

2007 Bay Scallop Bowl Results 1st Place - Churchville-Chili High School 2nd Place - Jericho High School 3rd Place - Mount Sinai High School 2007 Bay Scallop Bowl Photo Gallery

The Bay Scallop Bowl is a regional competition of the National Ocean Sciences Bowl (NOSB) held annually in New York.  The bowl is hosted by the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences(SoMAS) at Stony Brook University and takes place on the Stony Brook University campus on a Saturday in February or early March.  The competition features teams of high school students competing for cash prizes and a chance to represent New York in the NOSB final competition.

What is the National Ocean Science Bowl ?

The National Ocean Science Bowl (NOSB) is an annual competition for high school students and is sponsored by the Washington DC-based Consortium for Ocean Leadership. OL represents the nation’s leading marine research institutions, laboratories, and aquaria, sponsors the NOSB.  The National Marine Educators Association (NMEA) and federal government provide base funding for the NOSB, but local host institutions must meet the costs of running their regional competitions.  The objective of the NOSB is to raise awareness an understanding on the oceans and coastal resources among the nation’s high school students.  Each year, the NOSB orchestrates 20-25 regional competitions distributed around the nation’s coastal areas, including the Great Lakes region.  Regional competitions are held in February or early March.  The winning teams from each regional event meet in the NOSB finals, held in late April at a different coastal location each year.  The top-finishing teams in the NOSB finals receive great prizes featuring all expenses paid multi-day trips to oceanographic laboratories around the country.

Why have a Regional Site in New York ? 

New York’s schools are among the best in the nation and our high school students do extremely well in science fairs and national science competitions, such as that sponsored by the Intel Corporation.  Many Long Island high schools offer courses in oceanography or marine biology.  The average interest and knowledge level about the marine environment among Long Island high school students is high. 

Why at SoMAS ?

The School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences is among the world’s great institutions for study and instruction in the marine and atmospheric sciences.  It has a long history of working with state and municipal governments, the business community, non-governmental organizations, and the people of coastal New York to better understand and manage the marine environment that is so important to the state’s economy and lifestyle.  The School has conducted extensive programs and activities over the past thirty years involving local school districts, teachers, and students.  As the locus for marine science research and education in New York, SoMAS is the natural host for a New York NOSB regional competition.

For more information about the National Ocean Sciences Bowl, see the OL web page
(http://oceanleadership.org/)