The members of Team A consist of Gary Chen, Jared Filseth, Grace Lin, Jeffrey Ling and Jasen Liu. Team B consists of Joseph Chang, Travis Chen, Max Krawczyk, Andrew Lee and William Zhou. The teams were chosen based on buzzer testing and a written round created by the presidents. The difference between the two teams is that Team A usually consists of more experienced members whereas members on Team B are usually underclassmen because Team B is meant for fundamental knowledge and experience development.
The Science Bowl, launched and sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), is a highly competitive federal mathematics and science related contest available to high school and middle school students. Similar to popular television game shows like Jeopardy, it involves rapid verbal discourse and a buzzer system.
Led by presidents Lin, Ling and Kim, Team A aims to exceed their outcomes from last year by winning the regional competition and qualifying for the national competition.
“We didn’t do too well last year, but we are going to work harder,” second-time president Ling said. “I know we will do better.”
As team veterans, the presidents help fortify the team with not only their vast knowledge but also help bolster some of the newer members with their experience.
Expanding knowledge on eclectic science topics is the prominent way to build speed and improve as a team. According to members, surfing Wikipedia is extremely helpful because it provides information on an abundance of topics.
“Our goal is to learn more stuff in the fields of biology, chemistry, physics and earth science,” Filseth said. “Also to get faster on the buzzer.”
The team also has members who are specialists in certain subjects.
and Gary [Chen] are really good at biology, and [junior] Jared [Filselth] knows a lot about physics,” Ling said.
“We have a lot of strong underclassmen, so we want to help them gain experience,” Lin said. “Also, a few years ago [the team] earned seventh at nationals, so we hope to exceed that.”
