DHS Team Takes Silver in Science Bowl
NEIRAD enilno editionTime was running out. The hopes of the Darien team in the National Science Bowl rested on one question: “What is the common name of an alkaline with a six-carbon chain?” With hope in the quarterfinal match falling, senior Andrew Gagne quickly answered “Hexane” with just seconds to spare. Darien clinched the a second place trophy. Now they could move on to the double elimination state tournament.
Five DHS students participated in the National Science Bowl in Storrs on March 20. The roster included junior captain William Juan along with juniors Charlie Lacy, Sarah Smith and Gagne, and alternate Brandon Wong.
“Although the questions were relatively easy, the competition for speed made it considerably more difficult, but overall, the competition was a lot of fun,” Juan said.
They then had to face Glastonbury in the final round. The Hartford County school has a reputation for crushing its opponents. Yet, at half time the DHS team was tied demonstrating unexpected talent. But it was not enough to win.
“Although we lost the championship to Glastonbury A, the atmosphere at that point was definitely one of victory,” Lacy said. Because the team did not know how well they would fare against the competition, as a whole, the Darien group was more than satisfied with its second place regional finish. Lacy added, “Because this was our first year in the tournament, we were more than satisfied with the 2nd place regional finish.”
The competition runs on a quiz bowl format, which means the moderator asks a toss-up question that either team must answer in five seconds. The questions relates to seven subject areas: astronomy, biology, chemistry, earth science, general science, mathematics and physics.
Whichever team answers the toss-up question correctly receives four points and the right to a bonus question. They have(20 seconds to answer. The correct answer for the bonus can result in 10 additional points. The competition was timed with two eight-minute halves and a two-minute substitution break in between.
The DHS squad battled to pull off several come-from-behind wins. In almost every match of the final double-elimination tournament, the squad was behind at the half, sometimes trailing by as much as 50 or 60 points. In two of the tournament matches, Andrew Gagne and William Juan helped the team pull ahead at the very end of the second half thanks to some quick thinking. In the quarterfinals, they tied Greenwich in the last seconds and the tournament organizer had to make up a new tiebreaker rule on the spot.
In total, the team had 13 matches against schools from all over the state, such as, E.O. Smith from Storrs, Glastonbury, and Greenwich. Overall, the experience was unlike any other for these five students, and a little hardware was a nice addition to the experience.
Juan also added, “Since we are losing two of our critical members next year, we would most likely participate again if it is possible to recruit other members to join our team.”
