The UHS Science Bowl team placed second at the Regional Science Bowl Competition on Saturday, Jan. 22, 2022. The event, organized by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, was an online fiveperson, buzzer-based competition similar to a group version of Jeopardy. The UHS team consisted of senior and co-captain Robert Ni, senior and co-captain Alissa Kopylova, junior Benjamin Fan, sophomore Nathan Ouyang and freshman Yufei Chen. 

“This year, our team just barely missed out on an opportunity to compete at the national level,” senior and co-captain Robert Ni said. “Even with the loss, Alissa, my co-captain, and I are both so proud of our team this year.”

Students are quizzed at a first-year college level in science topics, such as Biology, Chemistry, Earth and Space Science, energy, math and physics, in a fast-paced, verbal format. Teams have just seven seconds to answer questions.

“Our team members Ben, Nathan and Yufei all competed for the first time this year, and they have really blown Alissa and I away with how much science they have learned and how mature they have become while working as a team,” Ni said. “We are so happy to be passing on our role [after graduating] . . . to a new group of enthusiastic and talented people.”

For this year’s online format, students had two cameras on them where one showed their faces and another monitored their workspace in an effort to ensure they were not cheating. Unlike an in-person tournament where teams went head-to-head with other teams, each team joined three volunteers in a virtual Zoom room for individual rounds of the event.

“We had two rounds in a row where we answered all the questions correctly, which [has] never happened to our team for the past two years when I was on it,” Kopylova said. “I definitely think that Ben, Nathan and Yufei have the potential to rebound and win next year.”

Members of the UHS Science Bowl Team expressed their appreciation for what Science Bowl has done for them both personally and academically. 

“Personally, I have found Science Bowl to be a great way to meet other science enthusiasts and a strong motivator to continue to learn more in-depth science knowledge,” Fan said.