Seniors Ankush Vasireddy, Arnav Busani, Yoon Jae Chang, Andrew Wu and junior Atharva Shinde won the Regional Science Bowl for the first time in MHS’ history.

“I feel like it’s kind of this last hurrah of my high school career,” Wu said. “It’s like a satisfying release, and honestly since it’s senior year, it’s kind of just fun.”

The competition is sponsored by the Department of Energy and Wu, who has been involved in the Science Bowl since sixth grade, has accumulated his knowledge from other science competitions, meetings for the Science Bowl club, reading textbooks and online practice questions.

Questions cover biology, chemistry, physics, energy, earth and space sciences and math. Competitors have 5 seconds to answer, and if they get that question right, they get a bonus question that must be answered in 20 seconds.

The Science Bowl team is now advancing to the National competition in Washington D.C. from Thursday, April 25, to Monday, April 29.

“I’m looking forward to meeting some friends I know from across the U.S.,” Wu said.

Chang is also excited for the trip.

“We’re just doing it for the experience and we don’t really expect much, but it’s fun,” Chang said.

Chang was convinced to join Science Bowl by his friends who have been involved since middle school.

“The hardest part about Science Bowl is that you have to beat the other team to the question,” Chang said. “At that level, you have to do complex math in like 1 to 2 seconds.”

Dr. Cathy Farrar, sponsor of the Science Bowl team, said the team’s speed is astounding. 

“It’s just such a great group of guys to work with. It’s just really nice to see them have a good time and be able to be recognized for all the hard work they put in,” Dr. Farrar said.