Students Volunteer for National Science Bowl

Sam Lewis, junior, Aerospace Engineering, practices his timekeeper role as a volunteer from Lockheed Martin explains the rules of competition to the teams.

On Saturday, March 12, seven College Park Scholars (Scholars) students volunteered as judges for the National Science Bowl. The Department of Energy sponsors the annual competition to promote science literacy among middle school students. The event brought together students from 14 schools across Maryland for a regional competition. The middle school students participated in a science knowledge competition and then raced model fuel cell vehicles.

Volunteers arrived at 8am for training in the detailed rules of the science knowledge competition and to practice their roles as scorekeeper, moderator, science judge, rules judge, and timekeeper. They supported the middle school teams in 5 rounds of competition, each covering up to 20 questions. The 7 Scholars volunteers brought to the competition by STS director Betsy Mendelsohn were critical to staffing the 8 rooms of concurrent competitions.

Four of the volunteers are freshmen in the Science, Technology and Society (STS) program of Scholars, majoring in Aerospace, Computer and Electrical engineering. The STS freshman colloquium, CPSP118T, awards credit to students who participate in a field trip or service activity. In addition to being judges for this competition, freshmen have supported the Girl Scouts and the Maryland Multi-cultural Youth Center, and will be volunteering at Maryland Day.

Published March 14, 2011