Jericho High School students Harris Moore, Samantha Bloomfield, Qi Yu, Heather Kaufman, and Vikas Anand recently competed against 15 other teams in the New York region to win the Scallop Bowl. Each student receives a $1000 cash award, and will be traveling to Monterey California on May 12 - 16 for a final national competition with their independent science research teacher Chris Hoppner. This is the first year that Jericho has participated in the competition.

The Scallop Bowl is one of 25 regional competitions that lead to the National Ocean Sciences Bowl (NOSB).

The competition, which is managed by the Consortium for Oceanographic Research and Education (CORE), represents 85 oceanographic institutions universities and aquaria. Some of the sponsors of the NOSB include: National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA), National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Science Foundation (NSF), Oceanographer of the Navy, Office of Naval Research, IEEE Oceanic Engineering Society, Minerals Management Service, Sea Education Association, U.S. Department of Energy (USDOE), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Dolphin Quest, Hilton Waikoloa Village and the National Marine Educators Association (NMEA). The 25 Regional Competitions are named for a representative species in that area (New York is the Scallop, Washington State is the Orca, Florida the Manatee, etc.). Each region, which has 16 - 20 teams of 5 team members each, sends one team to the finals.

The competition consists of a round robin seeding in the morning, and then a single / double elimination round in the afternoon. The topics are related to the study of ocean biology, chemistry, geology, physics, navigation, geography, related history, literature and more. All questions are either 5 second multiple choice "Quiz Bowl Type" questions, 20 second bonus questions, and team challenge questions, which can last from 3 - 7 minutes, and require written, graphed, and charted responses.

The first National Ocean Sciences Bowl was conducted in the winter and spring of 1998 in honor of the International Year of the Ocean. Past prizes have included trips to Southampton Oceanography Centre in England; Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies on Catalina Island, California; the Florida Keys; the Great Lakes Field Station; cruises on research vessels; visits to oceanographic institutions and aquaria; scholarships; scientific equipment and books.

Jericho High School will receive an official Scallop Bowl championship banner. The sponsors of the competition will cover all trip expenses to California for the 25 teams and their advisors. In California, the students will be involved in a variety of special activities including sailing, research cruises, behind the scenes tour of aquariums and research facilities, plus beach barbeques. The top eight teams will receive additional monetary or trip prizes.