The U.S. Department of Energy National Science Bowl is a nationwide academic competition that tests students’ knowledge in all areas of STEM. Since 2005, the University of Connecticut has hosted a Connecticut Regional Middle School Science Bowl. Last year, we welcomed teams from Rhode Island to the competition, making our event the Southern New England Middle School Science Bowl.
The Science Bowl is a quiz bowl competition in which teams of four answer challenging science, math, earth & space science, chemistry, energy, and physics questions in a fast-paced, timed setting. The students represent some of the strongest middle school STEM students in Connecticut and Rhode Island.
The Southern New England Middle School Science Bowl will take place throughout the day on Saturday, February 26, 2022 on Zoom OR at McHugh Hall on UConn’s Storrs campus. The top team will advance to the National Science Bowl in Washington D.C. or online (TBD) on April 28 – May 2, 2022.
Last year, 32 teams from 16 schools participated in our fully virtual competition. This year’s competition may be virtual or in-person. We haven’t decided the format yet, but we are working with UConn and the Department of Energy to determine our options.
Registration
Regardless of the format, registration for the event opens Friday, October 1, at 12PM EST! Teams must register through the National Science Bowl website: please carefully read the instructions on this website.
Team registration will no longer work on a first-come, first-served basis. From Oct. 1 to Dec. 15, coaches may register their school without having to identify the students who will be on the team. Student information and consent forms must be submitted by Wednesday, December 15. Schools will be guaranteed one spot, and 2nd and 3rd teams will be selected based on availability with a predetermined random selection process. Second teams will be approved on December 20, and third teams will be approved on January 1, 2022.
Please note: If you would like to have two or three teams, please do not wait until December 15th to register your Team 2 or Team 3 (you may register a 2nd or 3rd team as early as October 1st, but those teams will wait in the queue until we open the competition to additional teams).
Team Rules
- The 2022 Academic Rules can be found at: https://science.osti.gov/wdts/nsb/Regional-Competitions/Resources. There are different rules for in-person and virtual event formats.
- Because the national competition only allows 4-5 students to attend the competition if they win their regional competition, academic teams at the Southern New England Middle School Science Bowl will be limited to a maximum of 5 students/team.
- No club teams, community groups or non-school-based teams will be permitted. School-based teams only.
- All team members must attend the same school.
- Each team must be coached by a school employee, or an individual approved by the school (upon registration, the school’s principal will be emailed to electronically approve of any coaches that are not school employees). Note: we are unable to approve teams not coached by a school employee until we receive the principal’s approval. We are able to save your spot for 10 days without the form, but then your team may go to the bottom of the queue after that point.