Department of Sciences and Mathematics hosts 2025 Mississippi Regional Science Bowl
On Friday 21 Feb 2025, the Dept. of Sciences and Mathematics hosted the 2025 Mississippi Regional Science Bowl.
Science Bowl is a quiz-show type competition for teams of four students from an individual high school. Different teams play against each other two-at-a-time. A quiz moderator reads a STEM-related question (topics include Biology, Chemistry, Math, Physics, Earth & Space, and Energy) and players on the two teams compete to see who buzzes in first to answer the question. If the first team’s player answers incorrectly, the second team gets a second chance to buzz in to answer. If a player answers correctly, their team is awarded points. At the end of two eight-minute halves, the team with the most points wins.
Science Bowl is overseen and funded by the US Dept of Energy. For more than 25 years, the Dept. of Sciences and Mathematics at MUW has organized and hosted the Mississippi Regional Science Bowl. The winner of our tournament is awarded a fully-funded trip to Washington, D.C., to compete in the National Science Bowl against the winners of all the other regional Science Bowls held around the country.
This year, eleven different Mississippi high schools participated, sending 23 different teams. Most schools sent two teams, who competed separately. Some schools sent three teams.
Dr. Brian Burnes, Associate Professor of Biology Education in the department, planned, coordinated, and hosted this year’s tournament. He invited all the teams, created the schedule of matches, and kept tally of the standings after each round of matches.
Dept. of Sciences and Mathematics faculty members and students assisted with the matches, serving as moderators, scientific judges, time keepers, and score keepers.
In all, 111 high school students came to participate in the tournament, accompanied by 13 high school faculty advisors who served as their coaches and cheerleaders.
This was the first face-to-face, in-person Science Bowl tournament since the COVID-19 pandemic forced the competitions nation-wide to switch to an online format in 2021.
After nine round-robin rounds, the field was whittled down to eight teams, who met in the quarterfinals — Mississippi School for Mathematics and Sciences (MSMS) 1, MSMS 2, MSMS 3, Hartfield 1, Ocean Springs 1, Ocean Springs 2, Tupelo 1, and Oxford 2.
The final match, for the 2025 Mississippi Regional Science Bowl championship, was between the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Sciences 1 team and the Hartfield Academy 1 team.
Hartfield Academy 1 put up a fine fight, but fell to the MSMS 1 team. Hartfield was awarded the first runner-up plaque.
The Mississippi School for Mathematics and Sciences 1 team was awarded the first place trophy and wins a trip to Washington, D.C. to play in the National 2025 Science Bowl competition.
Congratulations to all the teams who played. It was a fun afternoon of tournaments.
See you next year at Science Bowl 2026.