2009 Aloha Bowl Information

On Saturday, February 21st, 2009 high school students from all over the state will compete in the 7th Annual Hawaii Regional competition for the National Ocean Science Bowl (NOSB®), called the “Aloha Bowl”. The winning team will represent Hawaii in the National Ocean Science Bowl to be held in Washington, DC on April 25-27, 2009.

Five high school students from Punahou School won the 2008 competition, but were unable to travel to the finals. Second place team Kealakehe High School was able to participate, and did an excellent job of representing Hawaii (and trying to stay warm!) at the National Ocean Science Bowl in Seward Alaska. They even won the Spirit Award! Congratulations Kealakehe High School!

Members of the winning team from Punahou included Eric Liaw, Randy Wong, Allison Chen, Thomas Young, Rentaro Matsukata and Coach David Strang. Our second place team that travelled to Alaska was Sarah Crawford, Conrad Sanborn, Todd Yamakawa, Julius Gutierrez, and Emma Leonard. Coach Sharon Chern was unable to attend, as she was busy bringing a 2020 NOSB participant into the world : ) Congratulations Sharon!

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 will be asked three types of questions: toss-up “buzzer” questions, bonus questions and team-challenge questions. Unlike the oral questions, the team-challenge question is written out and handed to both teams in at the completion of the first buzzer 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.
All of the teams will play each other in the morning round-robin rounds, with the top teams advancing to the double-elimination round. The winner of the last double-elimination round is crowned tournament champion.

To register your team for the 2009 Aloha Bowl, or for more information, please contact Tara Hicks Johnson, SOEST Outreach Specialist, at 956-3151, or hickst@hawaii.edu