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Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences
Contact: Adriana Bailey, 303-492-6289, adriana.bailey@colorado.edu
February 23, 2008

MOUNTAIN REGION STUDENTS CLAIM OCEAN BOWL WIN

Buzzers in hand, teens from across Colorado and surrounding states competed over the weekend for a spot in the National Ocean Sciences Bowl tournament.

Ready with answers to questions like, "what's the mean depth of the world's ocean?" or, "to a very small organism, such as a copepod, the viscosity of seawater would seem...?", teams of high school students battled for top seed in the Mountain Mariner Challenge—a regional ocean sciences bowl hosted by CU's Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, or CIRES.

Through 10 rounds of fast-paced buzzer questions and team long-answer questions, Poudre High School from Ft. Collins emerged undefeated and claimed the regional win. The team will travel to Seward, Alaska in April to compete in the finals. Second and third place went to Smoky Hill from Aurora and Peak-to-Peak from Lafayette. Boulder High made the elimination rounds but did not place.

"The ocean sciences bowl energizes students to have fun learning about science, and it gives the public an opportunity to be active in supporting earth and marine science education," said Susan Lynds of CIRES, the Mountain Mariner Challenge Coordinator. All of the judges, scorekeepers, and timekeepers or the regional bowl are volunteers. Many are scientists and graduate students from the University of Colorado and NOAA, Lynds said.

The National Ocean Sciences Bowl is supported by the Consortium for Ocean Leadership and Education. The Mountain Mariner Challenge is the only land-locked regional ocean sciences bowl in the country.

Participating high schools were the following:

• Boulder High School, Colorado
• Burke High School, Nebraska
• Cody High School, Wyoming
• Doherty High School, Colorado
• Faith Christian High School
• Kelly Walsh High School, Wyoming
• Loveland High School, Colorado
• Macksville High School, Kansas
• Peak-to-Peak Charter School, Colorado
• Poudre High School, Colorado
• Smoky Hill High School, Colorado
• Standley Lake High School, Colorado

Teams from Loveland and Boulder High Schools