NOSB team takes 1st place at regional championship
The Greenhills National Ocean Science Bowl (NOSB) team swept first place at the regional championship “Great Lakes Bowl” held Saturday at U-M. The team earned $500 cash, a voyage on a Great Lakes researchvessel, and a trip to represent our region in the national competition to be held in Milwaukee in April.
The student-scientists on the winning “A-team” include (pictured left to right) sophomores Tanwei Chen and Frank Fazekas, and seniors Henry Aspegren, David Barbehenn and Allision Hogikyan.
The team won every round by point spreads as high as 125 to 12, and played against both teams from regional powerhouse Dexter High School in the last single-elimination rounds of the tournament. NOSB coach Deano Smith says he is “extremely proud of these outstanding, dedicated, and intellectually ferocious students, some of whom have been working toward this for all four years of their high school experience.”
The school was also well represented by a B-team led by seniors Emily Wu and Justine Robinson and including juniors Tony Opipari (whose sister AnneMarie co-founded the team in 2007), Brendan Kelley and Ben Giampetroni. Supporting the team but not competing due to space restrictions were Kyle Nowak, Clayton Schulenberg-Connell, Alex Reeves, Malaika Holland, and Shea Sanvordenker.
The National Ocean Science Bowl (NOSB) is a nationally recognized and highly acclaimed high school academic competition that provides a forum for talented students to test their knowledge of the marine sciences including biology, chemistry, physics, and geology. The NOSB was created in 1998 in honor of the International Year of the Ocean and since its inception the competition has grown to include 25 regional competitions with 300 schools and over 2,000 students participating annually. The Consortium for Ocean Leadership, representing leading oceanographic institutions universities and aquaria, manages the competition at a national level. Locally it is supported by a number of businesses and institutions including the University of Michigan School of Natural Resources and the Environment, the Great Lakes Enviornmental Research Laboratory, CILER, the Great Lakes Fisheries Commission, Michigan Sea Grant, and the USGS Great Lakes Science Center.
