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SUBJECT AREAS Questions are asked in the categories entitled Chemistry , Biology , Physics , Earth Science , Mathematics , Astronomy , Current Events, and General Science. General Science covers science-related items that don't fall under any specific type of science such as items common to all sciences. In late 2002, Computer Science was dropped as an official category; questions relating to computer science are now asked under either General Science or Math. The National Science Bowl organization recently announced the addition of a category for Current Events for the 2005 National Competition. REGIONAL COMPETITIONS Each year, in late April or early May, the National Science Bowl competition is held in Washington, DC. As of 2006, the competition has been hosted by the National 4-H Center in Chevy Chase, Maryland . The winning team of each regional Science Bowl competition is invited to participate in the National Science Bowl all expenses paid. There are a number of regional competitions all over the United States; the exact number changes from year to year. For example, in 2006 there were 65 regionals, while in 2004 there were 64 regionals, and in 2003 there were 66 regionals. These figures count as two separate regionals the few "superregional" sites that are permitted to send two teams to the national competition (e.g. the Kansas City/St. Louis regional competitions). Typically, any high school that meets the eligibility rules of the National Science Bowl competition is permitted to register for any regional competition in the country, but no high school or student group may compete in multiple regionals. In addition, some regional competitions permit schools to register multiple teams. For example, Mission San Jose High School of Fremont, California has, for two years, sent teams to its regional competition that have placed 1st and 2nd. Teams comprised entirely of Homeschooled students are also permitted to enter; a perennial qualifier to the national competition is the Edmond Home Cooperative from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. RULES This section is concerned with the rules of the national competition. The rules of regional competitions vary greatly. There are very few prescribed rules for regional competitions. Some regionals are run nearly identically to the national competition, while others use variations of the rules or different methods of scoring. General rules A team consists of four or five students from a single high school (unless the team is comprised entirely of homeschooled students). Only four students play at any one time, while the fifth is designated as the "alternate." Substitutions may be made at halftime and between rounds. Two teams compete against each other in each match. Each match has exactly 25 questions (that is, 25 toss-ups and 25 corresponding bonuses). The match is over when all the toss-up questions have been read, or after two ten-minute halves have elapsed, whichever occurs first. The team with the most points at this time is the winner. Toss-ups Every match begins with a toss-up question. The moderator announces the subject of the question (see "Subject Areas" above), as well as its type (Multiple Choice or Short Answer). Once the moderator completes the reading of the question, students have five seconds to buzz in and give an answer. Students may buzz in at any time after the category has been read—there is no need to wait for the moderator to finish. However, there is a penalty for interrupting the moderator and giving an incorrect answer. Once a student from a team has buzzed in, that team may not buzz in again on that question. Conferring between members of a team is not allowed on toss-up questions; if conferring occurs on a question, the team is disallowed from answering that question. The rules regarding conferring are typically very strict: excessive noise, eye contact, or even noticeable shifts in position can be considered conferring, as they convey information to teammates. An answer given by a student is ruled correct or incorrect by the moderator. On short answer questions, if the answer given differs from the official one, the moderator uses his or her judgment to make a ruling (which is subject to challenge by the competitors). On multiple choice questions, the answer given by the student is only correct if it matches the official answer ''exactly''. Alternatively, the student may give the letter choice that corresponds to the correct answer. Although A, B, C, and D were onced used as answer choice letters, W, X, Y, and Z are now favored due to a lower chance of confusion. The decision to require multiple-choice answers to be verbatim has been a controversial one, but experience has shown that it is the best way to avoid complicated disputes during matches. Bonuses If a student answers a toss-up question correctly, that student's team receives a bonus question. The bonus question is always in the same category as the corresponding toss-up question. Since ''only'' that team has the opportunity to answer the bonus question, there is no need to buzz in to answer it. After the moderator finishes reading the question, the team has 20 seconds to answer. Conferring between team members is permitted, but the designated team captain must give the team's final answer. The same rules apply to the judging of responses to bonus questions as apply to responses to toss-up questions. Once the team's answer has been ruled right or wrong, the moderator proceeds to the next toss-up question. If neither team answers the toss-up question correctly, the bonus question is not read, and the moderator proceeds to the next toss-up question. Scoring The scoring at NSB is similar to scoring for Quiz Bowl, although with different numbers. Correct responses to toss-up questions are worth 4 points each, and correct responses to bonus questions are worth 10 points each. If a student buzzes in on a toss-up question before the moderator has completely read the question ("interrupting" the question) and responds ''incorrectly'', then 4 points are awarded to the opposing team, and the question is re-read in its entirety so that the opposing team has an opportunity to buzz in. Note the difference between interrupt scoring in Science Bowl and in Quiz Bowl: the interrupt penalty in Quiz Bowl is -5 to the interrupting team, while in Science Bowl it is +4 to the non-interrupting team. COMPETITION FORMAT This section is concerned with the format of the national competition only. As is the case with competition rules, the competition format varies greatly among the different regional competitions. The national competition always consists of two stages: round robin and double elimination. Round-robin All competing teams are randomly arranged into several Round-robin groups of seven or eight teams each. Every team plays every other team in its group once, receiving 2 points for a win, 1 point for a tie, or 0 points for a loss. The top two teams from each group advance to the double elimination round. Tiebreaks In the event that two or more teams are tied for one of the top two spots in a round robin group, there are several tiebreak procedures, applied in the following order: # The head-to-head record of all the tied teams is compared. The team(s) with the best record against the other tied teams win(s) the tiebreak. # The team(s) with the fewest losses win(s) the tiebreak. # If the top two teams still cannot be determined, the following procedures are used:
If a tie still exists after the third tiebreak step, the third step is reapplied until the tie is resolved. Single/Double elimination Approximately 32 teams advance from the round robin (depending on the number of round robin groups). In 2004, exactly 16 teams advanced, while in 2003 and 2002, 18 teams advanced. A team's position in the draw is determined by random draw; teams are not seeded in any way. The competition then proceeds like a typical Single-elimination Tournament . Unlike in the round robin, a match in double elimination cannot be tied. If a match is tied at the end of regulation, overtime periods of five questions each are played until the tie is broken. The single elimination system produces a first-place, second-place, third-place and fourth-place team. Prior to the 2006 tournament, a Double-elimination Tournament format was used. This allowed a fith place to be added. SPONSORS Several companies and organizations sponsor the National Science Bowl competition, the most prominent being the United States Department of Energy. Texas Instruments sponsors NSB and furnishes graphing calculators as prizes for the members of the top five teams. General Motors is also a regular sponsor of the event, and has in recent years sponsored the Hydrogen Fuel Cell Car competition held at NSB, where 16 teams compete to build the fastest or most powerful Fuel Cell -powered miniature car. IBM and Bechtel also sponsor the NSB. RESULTS OF THE NATIONAL COMPETITION The top four teams (out of 65) at the 2006 National Science Bowl were # State College Area High School ( State College, Pennsylvania ) # North Hollywood High School ( North Hollywood, California ) # Santa Monica High School ( Santa Monica, California ) # Albany High School ( Albany, California ) The top five teams (out of 63) at the 2005 National Science Bowl were # Thomas Jefferson High School For Science And Technology ( Alexandria, Virginia ) # Mission San Jose High School ( Fremont, California ) # George Walton Comprehensive High School ( Marietta, Georgia ) # Miami Palmetto Senior High School ( Pinecrest, Florida ) # Thomas S. Wootton High School ( Rockville, Maryland ) The top five teams (out of 64) at the 2004 National Science Bowl were # Thomas Jefferson High School For Science And Technology ( Alexandria, Virginia ) # A&M Consolidated High School ( College Station, Texas ) # Baton Rouge Magnet High School ( Baton Rouge, Louisiana ) # Montgomery Blair High School ( Silver Spring, Maryland ) # North Hollywood High School ( North Hollywood, California ) The full double elimination bracket from the 2004 competition is shown below. Note that the red numbers are not seed numbers, but match numbers to be used for reference in the bottom half of the bracket (the "loser's bracket"). The top five teams (out of 66) at the 2003 National Science Bowl were # Thomas Jefferson High School For Science And Technology ( Alexandria, Virginia ) # Centerville High School ( Centerville, Ohio ) # A&M Consolidated High School ( College Station, Texas ) # Taylor Allderdice High School ( Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania ) # Cincinnati Country Day School ( Cincinnati, Ohio ) The top five teams (out of 64) at the 2002 National Science Bowl were # Thomas Jefferson High School For Science And Technology ( Alexandria, Virginia ) # Boulder High School ( Boulder, Colorado ) # Mission San Jose High School ( Fremont, California ) # Sycamore High School ( Cincinnati, Ohio ) # Hanford High School ( Richland, Washington ) The winning teams from the years 1991-2001 (number of teams participating in parantheses):
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