Every year, a select group of ILS environmental and marine science students compete in the National Ocean Science Bowl. STEAM Program Coordinator, Dr. Shaw helps the team prepare for this event. 

This year, seniors Veronica Oliveira, Belen Gonzalez, Alma Pichardo, and Sofia Farres are competing as an all-female team, with Oliveira serving as team captain. 

The competition will be taking place either on March 27th or April 3rd. The official date will be announced in the coming weeks. 

It will be taking place virtually on Zoom due to restrictions in place because of the pandemic. 

They will be competing against many other Florida high schools, but they will not be answering questions directly head to head with any other team. They will answer the questions on their own and the winner will be determined once each team’s points are counted. 

The team has been preparing for a few months, studying topics such as marine biology, ocean chemistry, geology, geography, history, and more. 

Team member Belen Gonzalez has been hard at work making sure to learn as much as she can for the competition. 

“For the Ocean Bowl I am working on my assigned main topic, which is chemistry, and reading the chapters to make sure I learn everything that could possibly be a question during the competition,” said Gonzalez. 

“I am also creating notes for myself so that I can re-study the most important elements and specific numbers and formulas,” she continued. 

Students participating are incredibly excited to be able to compete and have high expectations for the team. 

“I think since we are all reviewing and we have an awesome team captain who knows how the questions are asked and a lot about the topic we will do really well. Even if we don’t make it super far, we have so much fun just practicing and I’m so happy I got to get closer to everyone,” said Gonzalez. 

Make sure to keep checking the Royal Courier for more updates on the Ocean Bowl!