Who is involved with the Blue Heron Bowl?

National Sponsors

The National Ocean Sciences Bowl is a collaborative effort between CORE and the NOSB host institutions. The NOSB is generously supported by U.S. government agencies through the National Oceanographic Partnership Program (NOPP) as well as by corporations, foundations and other non-governmental organizations.

NOSB gratefully acknowledges the support provided by its many Twenty-five sites have been selected to host the regional competitions. Each site has designated a staff member as the primary coordinator for the region. The regional coordinators are trained by CORE staff on how to organize and administer the regional competition. Each regional bowl and the final competition is staffed and run by volunteers (e.g., faculty members, students, ocean professionals from nearby Federal labs, administrative staff, etc.).

With the ultimate success of the National Ocean Sciences Bowl requiring the concerted efforts of many hundreds of volunteer staff at the regional competitions and the finals, training and preparing these volunteers for their key roles is the responsibility of the national office staff and regional coordinators. These volunteers serve as moderators, scientific judges, rules judges, timers and scorekeepers and are drawn from host institutions, Federal agencies and marine industry. CORE provides travel for regional coordinators to a mandatory training meeting each September. Each regional site is responsible for raising local funds to supplement an annual program subsidy provided by CORE.

Participating High Schools

The CORE institutions hosting a regional competition define the geographic area included in their competition, and invite schools located in those regions. Generally, schools participating in the regional bowl pay their own expenses to the regional competition, though some locations provided some assistance.

The Technical Advisory Panel

The Technical Advisory Panel is composed of approximately 15 ocean scientists, university-level educators and high school teachers to provide overall guidance and advice to the development of the National Ocean Sciences Bowl. Specifically, the Panel provides technical oversight on changes to the competition format and the preparation of competition questions. The Panel meets two to three times in Washington, DC, between October and February of a given school year.

A Resources Guide is used to direct interested students and their teachers to key information and materials on ocean research and related topics. The actual questions for the regional and final competitions are drawn -- at least in part -- from this resource material. This guide was prepared because most high school science courses do not include ocean research "per se" as part of their content; students will often study weather formation, global climate issues, marine mammals and earth sciences, but not the oceans as the major engines of global climate and weather. Moreover, the general ocean sciences (physical and chemical oceanography, etc.) and specific ocean phenomena (currents, heat transfer mechanisms, etc.) are rarely studied at all.

The Resources Guide includes citations to a number of key sources of information on the oceans -- textbooks, CD-ROMs, and select sites on the World Wide Web. This Guide has been reviewed by the Technical Advisory Panel, and was prepared by CORE staff. The Resources Guide is available on the Internet, and distributed by the regional coordinators to schools in their regional service area.

With input from ocean scientists and educators throughout the CORE community, CORE project staff prepare the questions for the regional and final competitions. Approximately 3000 questions are prepared for the competitions each year. The questions are organized for the regional and national competitions in order of increasing difficulty.