Created in 1998, Ocean Science Bowl is an annual science competition for
high school students similar to
Science Bowl that is managed by the
Consortium for Oceanographic Research and Education. The goal is to broaden awareness of the oceans, give research programs the opportunity to reach out to students, to encourage students to pursue an ocean-related career, etc. The competition includes ocean-related questions on scientific topics such as
biology,
chemistry,
physics,
history,
geology, and
geography.
Teams are made up of up to five members, four of which are active during the portion of the competition (the fifth is an alternate). Most of the time, everybody is active at some point, unless one team member happens to be totally useless.
Competition usually consists of a
round robin competition, followed by a
double elimination bracket. Smaller regions (like my own) have only a
round robin competition.
As in
Science Bowl, there are two types of buzzer questions, toss-up questions and bonus questions (which, again, may be asked as multiple choice or short answer questions). Teams are awarded four points for getting a toss-up question, and six points for correctly answering a bonus question. Team members are allowed to confer on bonus questions.
Unlike Science Bowl, there is a Team Challenge Question, in which questions are presented in written form, along with necessary graphics. Teams must cooperate on these questions,
and the captain writes the answers on the paper in the given amount of time.
There are not as many active regions participating in Ocean Science Bowl as there are in
Science Bowl. The winning team from each region advances to the national competition, held in late April. The national competition has been held in sites such as Charleston, SC and La Jolla, CA and will be held in Biloxi, MS this coming April.
Source:
http://www.nosb.org/