East Bay middle schools among top three in National Science Bowl
Gale Ranch Middle School of San Ramon placed second in the National Science Bowl in Washington, D.C. today, losing to a New Mexico school in a battle between the top two teams that featured questioning from first lady Michelle Obama.
Hopkins Junior High in Fremont placed third. High school teams from Palo Alto and San Jose were eliminated in earlier rounds.
The U.S. Department of Energy's 20th annual National Science Bowl featured competition between 37 middle schools for the middle school division title, and 68 high schools.
The competing school teams had qualified, and received all-expense paid trips to the competition by winning regional contests — a total of 20,000 students took part this year.
Students were quizzed on a range of subjects including math, biology, chemistry, earth science, physics and astronomy. Teams were eliminated in competitions over the weekend before Gale Ranch and Albuquerque Academy faced off his morning.
The top eight middle schools each received $1,000 for their school. Each member of the top three middle school teams received a Texas Instruments Nspire calculator.
The Gale Ranch team members are Rishi Krishnan, Ayush Rath, Saran Prembabu, Sijung-Jason Kim, Augustine Chemparathy, and coach George Chemparathy. The Hopkins team was Krishna
