Punahou School wins 2011 Hawai'i Ocean Science Bowl

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
Contact:
Tara L. Hicks Johnson, (808) 956-3151
Outreach Specialist, School of Ocean and Earth Sciences and Technology
Posted: Feb 28, 2011

Winners of the 2011 Hawaii Ocean Science Bowl, Punahou School.
Winners of the 2011 Hawaii Ocean Science Bowl, Punahou School.
On Saturday, February 26,  high school students from all over the state of Hawai'i and Guam competed in the ninth annual "Aloha Bowl," the Hawai'i regional competition for the National Ocean Science Bowl (NOSB).
 
Five high school students from Punahou School won the competition, and will represent Hawaiʻi in the NOSB, which will be held April 29 – May 1 in Galveston, Texas. Members of the winning team include Jordan Kaneshige, Karl Heyer, Kai Aknin, Calder Atta, Phillip Lin, and Coach Dave Strang. Waiakea High School’s Team A took second place, with Maui High School coming in third.
 
This educational program was developed to stimulate interest in the ocean sciences among high school students and demonstrate to the public the importance of the oceans in our daily lives. One of the long-term goals of the program is to foster the next generation of marine scientists, educators and policy-makers for the ocean sciences.
 
During the competition, students were asked three types of questions: toss-up, bonus and team-challenge. Toss-up and bonus questions are in a multiple-choice or short-answer format. The team-challenge question is written out and handed to both teams at the half time of each round. These questions require higher cognitive skills, often use visual aids such as charts, maps, and graphs and the students work together to earn as many points as possible, which may make the difference between winning or losing the round of competition. Question difficulty increases as the competition progresses.
 
The Aloha Bowl is organized through UH Mānoa's School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology and is funded by the NOSB, with Hawaiʻi assistance from the Joint Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research (JIMAR), UH Mānoa's Center for Microbial Oceanography: Research and Education (C-MORE), the Pacific Islands Ocean Observing System (PacIOOS), and the State of Hawaiʻi Department of Transportation's Storm Water Management Program.
 
For more information about the bowl, visit http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/nosb/ or  http://www.nosb.org/.