Roosevelt Middle School heads to national Science Bowl

ARGONNE, Ill. (June 4, 2003) — A team of students from Roosevelt Middle School in River Forest will represent the Chicago region at the National Middle School Science Bowl in Golden, Colo. June 25-28.

The team won the right to go to Colorado after winning top honors in the Chicago Regional Science Bowl sponsored by Argonne National Laboratory and the U.S. Department of Energy. The regional science bowl consisted of both an academic competition and a solar car competition.

The goal of the Science Bowl is to encourage student involvement in math and science activities. In the academic competition, students competed in a fast-paced, quiz-show style, head-to-head competition which included round-robin and double-elimination components. Roosevelt placed first in this part of the contest which was held in April.

In the solar car competition, held early in May, students used aerodynamics, applied science and engineering skills to build solar-powered model cars. All participating teams used a standard solar car kit consisting of a solar cell and motor. Cars had to be about shoebox size and powered entirely by the sun. Prizes were awarded to top-performing cars, and design awards were given based on technology, craftsmanship, appearance of the car and a working knowledge of the car's design.

Roosevelt Middle School won first place in the design category. Second place went to Eisenhower Junior High School in Darien, and third place went to Jefferson Junior High School in Woodridge. First place in the racing category went to Jerling Junior High in Orland Park. Second place went to Cowherd Middle School in Aurora, and third place went to Madison Junior High School in Naperville.

Roosevelt's win of the overall science bowl was determined from a three-way tie based on their average points per game in the academic competition.

The 2003 National Middle School Science Bowl will be a competition between 16 middle school teams that won at selected regional competitions. These teams will compete in both an academic question and answer competition and a solar car race.

The solar car competition in the Chicago Regional Science Bowl was sponsored by Argonne, the U.S. Department of Energy, CNH, the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity and the Society of Automotive Engineers.

The nation’s first national laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory conducts basic and applied scientific research across a wide spectrum of disciplines, ranging from high-energy physics to climatology and biotechnology. Since 1990, Argonne has worked with more than 600 companies and numerous federal agencies and other organizations to help advance America's scientific leadership and prepare the nation for the future. Argonne is operated by the University of Chicago as part of the U.S. Department of Energy's national laboratory system.

For more information, please contact Steve McGregor (630/252-5580 or media@anl.gov) at Argonne.