Emily Williams, Gilpin County. Gilpin County High School is full of lots of extra curricular activities that allow students to grow academically. One of those activities is the Science Bowl. About five years ago a Science Bowl team got together because a parent of one of the students at Gilpin High School wanted to help start the program. The members of this group are Damien Sonsino, Drake Hylton, and Shane Wu. Five years ago would mean the current seniors, the three students listed, would have been in eighth grade. These seniors have been a part of the group since the start. 

Science Bowl is an organization that holds competitions and gives students a chance to further their knowledge and see what they know. The competitions consist of a series of questions that relate to one of these categories, chemistry, physics, earth and space, mathematics, biology, and energy. Teams answer these questions to gain points, however these are not high school level questions, they are college level and higher, meaning they are usually difficult to answer. But according to Mrs. Heather Newman, “It’s fun to see what we know and practice and review, some of the things we have no idea, and we have to do research”. 

The Department of Energy runs the Science Bowl and holds competitions each year for it. They host the event and provide staff to run the competitions they have. In past years the competition has been held at a high school; however, now because of the Covid, all competitions are held virtually. 

In addition to the Department of Energy, NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratories) runs the regional competitions. There are twenty-four teams in Gilpin’s region and there are fourteen schools that make up these teams. During competitions Gilpin is up against much larger schools that seemingly have a better chance of winning. But the competitions are based on knowledge not size of the team, meaning Gilpin always has a fair chance. Though Gilpin’s team has not yet won, they have done exceptionally well throughout the years.

Mrs. Newman is the leader of this group. She got involved when a parent who worked for NREL was pushing to have a Science Bowl team at Gilpin. Since she is one of the Science teachers at Gilpin she offered to help get the program started. Since this year’s seniors are graduating, Mrs. Newman does not know what the future of the group is going to look like. She asks that if anyone is interested in joining the team next year to please teach out and contact her.  

(Originally published in the March 11, 2021, edition of The Mountain-Ear.)