Five Sharon Academy Students

Compete in U.S. Science Bowl

Five middle school students from The Sharon Academy returned from Golden, Colo. June 22 after competing in the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) National Science Bowl. Josephine Adamski of Strafford, Cedar Farwell of Hartland, Jake Hurwitz of Stockbridge, Evan Roe of West Brookfield, and Annabelle Roberts of Hartland, with coaches Tori Lloyd and John Roe, qualified for the national competition after winning the New England Regional competition in April.

Thirty-six teams competed at the national level in two main activities. The second competition is a fast-paced academic event in which teams answer complex questions about physical, life, and earth sciences as well as mathematics. The first event is an engineering activity sponsored by General Motors, which challenges students to design, build and race a model hydrogen fuel cell car.

Competing against the other 180 students from across the US, the five students from TSA received ninth place for their model hydrogen fuel cell car, in speed. "I can’t believe we built the 9^th fastest hydrogen fuel cell car in the nation!" said Hurwitz incredulously.

In the academic event, the team was knocked out after nine rounds, but set a first for the state of Vermont, by being the first Vermont team to ever win one round in the academic portion.

While not a competition, each team was required to produce a creative visual "knowledge presentation." Hurwitz and his teammates made a video production. Other teams made PowerPoint presentations, did skits and one team even put on a puppet show. The team once again found themselves surprised and honored to learn their video was chosen as one of 10 presentations to be highlighted and shown to the entire group of over 200 competitors and coaches.

"This was unbelievably fun and exciting," Hurwitz said. "We’re going to put together a high school team and spend the whole next year studying for the high school level competition!"

Listening to Hurwitz enthuse about the competitions, the new friends students met, and the plans already made for next year’s competition, it’s clear the US Dept. of Energy met its goal of inspiring a new generation of engineers and scientists.

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