Science bowl began at Brownell Talbot two years ago when Mr. Sauer, who teaches Biology and AP Biology, introduced the activity. On February 13th, Brownell Talbot had three teams compete in the Nebraska Regional High School Science Bowl Competition, hosted by Wayne State College. This year’s competition was held on Zoom. Teams were asked questions assessing knowledge in biology, chemistry, mathematics, physics, and earth and space categories, and their scores were tallied. Nineteen teams of three to five students competed in the competition’s preliminary matches. Two teams from BT had competitive preliminary matches but did not advance to the elimination matches. The first was composed of Mary Schinzel ‘22, Clare Schinzel ‘24, Francesca Vidal ‘24, and Matt Schinzel ‘24. The second team included Asal Mohammadi ‘24, Guy Shipley ‘24, Cameron Maxwell ‘24, Anna Khan ‘24, and Luke Knofczynski ‘24. After the preliminary matches, the top 8 teams advanced to the quarterfinals based on their preliminary scores. In the semifinal round, teams from Millard North, Omaha North, Lincoln East, and Brownell Talbot faced off. Lincoln East and Brownell Talbot advanced to the finals. In the end, Brownell Talbot’s team of Josh Randolph ‘22, Jack Cenovic ‘22, Akshay Mehta ‘22, Riley Hawkins ‘22, and Aishani Srikumar ‘21 won the Nebraska Regional High School Science Bowl Competition with a score of 34-26 against Lincoln East. This team will compete in the Science Bowl National Finals, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy. The Science Bowl National Finals will be held on May 22nd this year. While the Science Bowl National Finals are normally held in Washington D.C., this year’s tournament will be virtual. Congrats to all of the members of BT’s science bowl team on competing at state!

Every year, Academic Decathlon, also known as Acadec, has a theme that the seven subjects are centered on; economics, art, music, literature, science, math, and social science. This year’s theme was the Cold War. For districts, students had to take seven tests, and if the team was one of the top-scored teams at regionals, they would proceed to state. At state, individuals had to take another seven tests but also had an interview, speech, and essay.

However, due to the pandemic, Academic Decathlon has had its fair share of challenges. Students this year have had to change from going to districts and state in-person to taking tests online at home. For the super quiz, they did not have their usual quiz bowl style format and opted for another additional test to accommodate Covid-19. Despite these difficulties, the Brownell Acadec team has persevered and managed to get 2nd overall at state. But the events leading up to the championship were a journey.

As Akshay Mehta (‘22) explains, “Transitioning to being completely online for academic decathlon was interesting, to say the least. It was definitely a different ball game because you did not have a physical paper test, instead, it was filling in bubbles online. I learned to adapt and understand the quickest ways to answer questions and succeed. Overall, the system was a lot more efficient than driving out for 2 hours and spending a whole day at Midland.” While the online format posed issues at the start, there are some benefits such as convenience when using the online format. Mr. Smith, coach of Academic Decathlon, also mentioned how he did not have worries about Covid-19: “as far as Covid, we’re set up pretty well to manage it as our info delivery system is all through the computer anyway- so distance learning is not that big of a hindrance.”