Peruse this informational
website about this year's Blue Heron Bowl. Specific questions can be
guided towards this year's regional coordinator, Janelle Fleming, or
Amy Waggener. Thanks for visiting.
The Confirmation packet was sent out December, 2006 and is available
here .
Rules summaries and presentation
The Rules review powerpoint which was presented on Tuesday, February 20th
at IMS is available in .ppt for as well as in .pdf format. The flow charts
included in the presentations are also included in .pdf format here.
Additionally, our resident engineer rules judge, Herb Stanford, has
prepared a "rules summary" and "what happens when time runs out" sheet
that may be in a more readable format. All are available here...
The Blue Heron Bowl is the regional competition for the National Ocean
Sciences Bowl (NOSB®). NOSB is a national academic competition for
high schools on topics related to the study of the oceans and is
coordinated by the Consortium for Oceanographic Research and Education
CORE,
representing leading oceanographic institutions universities and
aquaria. The NOSB was first conducted in the winter
and spring of 1998 in honor of the International Year of the Ocean.
Past prizes have included trips to Southampton Oceanography Centre in
England; Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies on Catalina
Island, California; the Florida Keys; the Great Lakes Field Station;
cruises on research vessels; visits to oceanographic institutions and
aquaria; scholarships; scientific equipment and books. NCSU has
hosted this event many times in the past and you can check out webpages
from NCOSB's of the past here.
UNC-W also hosted the event in 2003 and 2004 and you can check out
their webpage here. TOP
Why
This competition is intended to increase knowledge of the oceans on the
part of high school students, their teachers and parents, as well as to
raise the visibility and public understanding of the national
investment in ocean-related research. Specific objectives of the
National Ocean Sciences Bowl are to:
Broaden students' and teachers' awareness of
the latest
scientific research on the oceans and the critical impact of the oceans
on global climate and weather, economic well-being, history and
culture;
Help teachers use the oceans as an
interdisciplinary vehicle
for teaching biology, chemistry, geology, physics, and mathematics by
giving them access to marine science education and scientific
professionals;
Give oceanographic research programs the
opportunity to
develop new links with their local pre-college community and open
student’s eyes to ocean-related career options; and
Reach out to new students and communities to
boost
participation by populations under-represented in the ocean sciences.
A formal evaluation of the program was conducted by Howard Walters,
Ed.D., Ashland University, and Kristina Bishop, Ed.D., The College of
Exploration, during 2002-2004. The evaluation indicates the NOSB
program has had a significant positive impact on marine science
education at the high school level and has increased awareness of
marine science careers.
TOP
How
General
Format
The
National Ocean Sciences Bowl consists of a
round-robin/double-elimination format for teams of high school
students; teams consist of four students plus one alternate and a
coach. The format involves a timed competition of multiple-choice or
short-answer questions within the broad category of the oceans.
Questions are drawn from the scientific and technical disciplines used
in studying the oceans (physics, chemistry, geology, atmospheric
science, biology, etc.) as well as from topics on the contributions of
the oceans to national and international economics, history and culture.
Details
on Competition
CORE,
with the assistance of scientific question writers, a Technical
Advisory Panel and the NOSB regional coordinators, prepares the
competition rules and regulations and the specific questions to be used
in both the regional and national competitions. The National Ocean
Sciences Bowl is a timed competition (defined as the use of "lock-out"-
type buzzer systems and clocks) between two teams. Each match consists
of a series of toss-up questions that individual team members must
answer without collaboration. A team that correctly responds to a
toss-up question is given a bonus question to answer as a team.
Additionally two "team challenge" questions are provided in written
form and require teamwork and extra time to complete. Unlike the
toss-up and bonus questions, both teams can answer the team challenge
question and win points for their correct responses. Each match has 2
team challenge questions and approximately 14 toss-up questions paired
with an equal number of bonus questions. Matches consist of two
6-minute halves with a 2-minute break. Additional time is given during
the break for team challenge questions.
While regional
competitions are generally completed in one day, the finals are held
over a two-day period. Competitions consist of ~15 matches (or rounds)
including tie-breakers, as necessary. The competition utilizes a
round-robin format for the early rounds followed by a
double-elimination segment for final rounds at the national finals and
most of the regional tournaments. Some regional tournaments have
incorporated team projects and posters into their competition format.
The
winning teams from each of the twenty-five competitions are provided
transportation and room and board for the final national competition.
The location for the final competition changes annually.
2001-
Miami, FL; 2002 – Providence, RI; 2003- LaJolla, CA; 2004- Charleston,
SC; 2005- Biloxi, MS; 2006 – Pacific Grove, CA, 2007 - Stony Brook, NY TOP
Who
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 sponsors.
Regional
Coordinators and Volunteers
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.
UNC's Institute of Marine Sciences and DUKE have teamed up to host the
event in Morehead City, NC.
Teams will be staying at the
Hampton Inn in
Morehead City on Friday, February 23, 2007. The quiz event will take
place on the campus of the
Carteret Community College and a
campus map is available here.
This year's regional coordinator is Janelle V. Reynolds-Fleming and she
may be contacted at janelle.fleming [at] gmail.com You may also get in
touch with Amy Waggener at waggener [at] email.unc.edu TOP
We need at least 50 volunteers throughout the day for this event. If you
have volunteered before and would like to participate again, GREAT! Email
Janelle and we can sign you up in your preferred position. For each
two team competition, we need a moderator, science judge, rules judge,
scorekeeper, timekeeper, and runner. Plus we need "Game central" science
judges and rules judges to grade the Team Challenge Questions and provide
answers to questions that may stump the judges in the thick of the game.
We don't expect you to fill a position "cold turkey", but will train you
as we bribe you with food! Also, you'll get a fancy volunteer t-shirt,
food during the event, and a warm fuzzy feeling!
Training sessions will be held on 12/6/06; 12/14/06; 01/14/07 in
the seminar room at the UNC-Institute of Marine Sciences
Accomodations are available through IMS and DUKE dorms if you are
coming from out of town. Please contact Janelle if you need housing
We have had so much local support for this event and many of the sponsors
have given monetary gifts or gifts in kind. The main sponsors have their
logos on the top of this page, but you can also click on the following
links:
