By Vernon Robison
Moapa Valley Progress
Eight students from Mack Lyon Middle School attended the Nevada Regional Science Bowl events last week. Science Bowl is an academic competition where teams of four students each compete to answer various science-related questions. Categories for Middle School divisions include Earth Science, Life Science, Physical Science, Math, Space and Energy.
“The questions are broad ranging and it would be tough for one person to study and prepare for all of these categories,” said Mack Lyon Librarian Robin Fullmer.
Fullmer and 8th grade Science teacher Marla Johnson accompanied the Lyon students to the event as team advisors.
Mack Lyon students were nominated by Science teachers to be invited to participate on the school teams. Of those who were invited, the eight students were the ones who were interested in competing. The team members had been studying and preparing during after school sessions since early November to prepare for the competition, Fullmer said.
As part of the Science Bowl weekend, the students travelled into Las Vegas on Friday afternoon to visit the Atomic Testing Museum. After the visit on Friday evening, the teams were briefed on the rules and procedures of the Science Bowl competition which would be held the following day.
The next morning, the students arrived early to compete in the Science Bowl held at Henderson International School.
The competition was intense. The winner of the regional contest would receive an all expense paid trip to the National Science Bowl Competition in Washington D.C. this spring.
“Some of these schools have been sending teams to this contest for many years now; so they kind of have it down,” Fullmer said. “This is the first year for Mack Lyon so we had a lot to learn.”
Even so, Fullmer and Johnson said that the local teams performed very well considering it was the schools first time in the contest.
“We learned some things and we’ll be even better prepared for next year,” Johnson said.
