The 23rd Annual National Ocean Sciences Bowl (NOSB) Finals Competition wrapped up April 20, and for the first time ever, the competition was conducted virtually via Zoom. An interdisciplinary ocean science education program of the Consortium for Ocean Leadership (COL), the NOSB tests students’ knowledge of ocean science topics, including disciplines of biology, chemistry, policy, physics and geology.
To qualify for finals, teams first had to win a regional competition (there are 23 regions across the country). The University of Southern Mississippi’s Marine Education Center (MEC) hosts the Central Gulf Coast Region, known as the “Hurricane Bowl”, which includes teams from Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Florida and Tennessee. Gulfport High School won the 2020 Hurricane Bowl that took place Feb. 1.
Each year, a different region hosts finals, and the MEC was selected again (2005 and 2015) to host for 2020. A slate of activities including a career mentoring night, field trips, the competition and more was scheduled to be held at the USM Gulf Park Campus. After several months of planning, the finals event was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
As the NOSB regional coordinator, I worked with the COL staff developing ideas to go forward with the competition. The team decided to organize a virtual finals competition through Zoom. The new schedule included a career mentoring evening, virtual field trip to the Galapagos Islands, presentations from professionals during opening ceremonies and a great competition.
Normally, the competition is a head-to-head, rapid-fire, buzzer-style competition, but we developed it into an individual meeting between each team and a panel of judges. Each team addressed the originally planned finals questions. The judges awarded them points for each correct answer. Other than dropping the head-to-head interaction, not much really changed.
The 19 teams that were able to participate quickly made it apparent that this generation of students has no issues working virtually. The camaraderie that developed over the days of the competition proved that continuing with finals virtually was still a meaningful experience. Although it was unfortunate that the students were not able to travel to the Gulf Coast and experience everything the MEC had planned, it was noticed across the board among organizers that moving forward with a virtual finals competition provided all participants with a sense of normalcy while getting used to the “new norm.”
By the end of the competition, about 114 students and coaches had worked with dozens of ocean science professionals and volunteers, including MASGC’s own Dr. Steve Sempier, who assisted with judging during one of the activities. Congratulations to the winning team, Ladue Horton Watkins High School from St. Louis, Missouri.
