There are students who have extraordinary brain power who walk the campus of Tupelo High School. The ones who change the way other states view our school.
Tupelo High School’s Science and Math competing teams went to MSMS to put themselves up to the challenge against the other teams in a race to answer questions before the other teams.
Team 1 was the team that made it far into the first round of finals, but ended up not making it any further. Although they didn’t bring home a trophy, being with one another was a golden moment for all of them. The team shares their experiences with everyone who’s considering competing next year.
“It’s like the saying “coughing baby versus atomic bomb”. We didn’t really stand a chance.” says Isaiah Barbour, captain of team 1.
The team was young, going against upper-class men, and it became harder for them to answer enough questions correctly. .
“I personally don’t think it was that unfair.” Lailyn Valencia said. “When we went into the competition, we knew that we would be up against higher classmen, and so I feel like we were thoroughly told that and had enough time to prepare. So if we lose, that’s our fault as well.” Valencia claims.
It takes a lot to be mentally prepared for what is to come in the science bowl. One second team members willyou’ll be answering questions within the water cycle, and then next round you’ll be rummaging through parts of theiryour brain trying to figure out how many particles are in an apple. You can never be fully prepared for what they ask you. So take Valencia’s advice and just use your time wisely to prepare!
Although what was to come that day was disappointing for the team, they all took away an important moral.
“Science bowl is actually pretty fun and I also learned that science is fun.” mathematician Madhav Mehta, the mathematician of the team, saidstates.
“It’s really nice to be able to work with a team who also likes science and math.”
A major part of competing is learning new things. Either it’s learning something within a school subject, or just a life lesson.
“I felt a little sad, but at least we made it to finals. We could have done way worse.” Elijah Gibson saidsays.. He explains to us how he felt after seeing his friends lose against the other team.
“I learned that it’sits a very quick-pacedquick paced environment, and you’veyou got to be really really fpast in order to answer questions,.” Gibson said.
“There are some try-hards [methods to get more points], and we just gotta lock in next time.” Joshua Thompson, the captain of team 2He saidstates.
If you are considering joining the National Science Bowl competition, then get ready for a wild ride of learning, teamwork, and maybe a bit of stress. But totally worth it in the end!
