SPASH Students needed for the NOSB team
September 26, 2018
By JUSTICE CHUKWUEMEKA
The Mirror reporter
The SPASH National Ocean Science Bowl team is in need of members for the upcoming competition on February 2, 2019. It will be held at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
The National Ocean Science Bowl (NOSB) is a yearly competition for high school students on topics regarding oceanography and marine sciences.
This competition was developed by a group of scientists who were looking at how they could identify students who are interested in the sciences and get them interested in ocean issues to target solving problems as a bigger picture.
Victor Akemann, the advisor of the NOSB team at SPASH said that the “Ocean” in the NOSB is “just a vehicle used in the competition.” This remark was made to address cases where students are scared away from the competition because they “don’t like the ocean.”
The competition requires at least a team of four but, one extra person is helpful as a substitute.
Akemann compared the teams in NOSB to a football team.
“The quarterback of a football team is not going to necessarily run the ball,” he said. You don’t have to know everything about science to participate.
The format of the competition is as follows: Two tables with four members of each team face the director who asks the science questions.
The idea is to be fast enough to hit the buzzer in order to answer the question. The first team to hit the buzzer answers the question. If the answer is incorrect, the next team has the opportunity to answer the same question.
The NOSB is the national competition for teams that win their regional competition.
SPASH has a long history of competing in the Lake Sturgeon Bowl. Last academic year, Akemann took four SPASH students to the regional competition to get them aware of how the event works.
The NOSB is known for its consortium of ocean leadership. It recognizes and awards up to five students who hope to pursue college degrees in the sciences, technology, engineering and math (STEM)
Five students from around the nation received a scholarship at the 2017 national competition.
Rachel • Oct 3, 2018 at 11:14 AM
I really enjoyed this article. I didn’t know what NOSB was when I first heard of it, but now I do and I wish everything goes well this year.
Soren Luther • Sep 30, 2018 at 6:44 PM
Great job on this article! I have heard of the NOSB team before, but I haven’t really deeply understood what they do. I think it’s cool to have competitions like this and I may even be interested in joining a team like this in the future. Keep up the great work!
Maryann Silva • Sep 28, 2018 at 8:57 AM
If I was good at science I’d definitely join. This seems very fun. Great job.
Madison Rindahl • Sep 27, 2018 at 3:40 PM
Great article! I had no idea that NOSB was even a thing. This article had great information and really got me informed on what it was all about. Thanks for writing about it. Great work.
Hlee • Sep 27, 2018 at 10:58 AM
The club sounds interesting. I’d originally thought that you should know a lot about science to join the competition.
Bryant VanRossem • Sep 27, 2018 at 10:26 AM
This is really cool. SPASH has so many amazing things for their students.
Bryant VanRossem • Sep 26, 2018 at 11:30 AM
This is very interesting on how different teachers have different plans for the alice