February 11, 2011
Friday PM

(SitNews) Can you name the chemical that is the principal source of energy at many of Earth’s hydrothermal vents?

Seth Brickey can tell you: The answer is “hydrogen sulfide.”

Brickey was named MVP for the Juneau-Douglas High School team, Absolute Vorticity, which took first place in last weekend’s Tsunami Bowl, the Alaska Region National Ocean Sciences Bowl. This is the fifth year in a row that a Juneau high school team has won the Tsunami Bowl.

Absolute Vorticity team members: Seth Brickey, team captain Tyler Houseweart, Elise Christey, Sam Kurland and Martina Miller.
Photo courtesy UAF School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences and Alaska Sea Grant

The University of Alaska Fairbanks Seward Marine Center hosted the competition Feb. 4-6 in Seward. The competition consists of two equally weighted parts: a quiz bowl academic competition designed to challenge students’ knowledge of ocean sciences and a research project that has both written and public speaking components. This year, the research project focused on human responses to oceanic events.

Ben Carney, Absolute Vorticity coach and a teacher at Juneau-Douglas High School, said his team worked hard for their win.

“Absolute Vorticity won because they put in a tremendous amount of effort toward all aspects of the competition in a coordinated manner, set high expectations of themselves and functioned as a complete team at competition with a single goal,” he said.

Students on the team included Brickey, team captain Tyler Houseweart, Elise Christey, Sam Kurland and Martina Miller.

“I am proud of all the Juneau participants for putting in the level of work that they did,” added Carney.

The Tiger Sharks from Mat-Su Career and Technical High School took second place. Members included team captain Jonah Jeffries, Alonzo Gage, Chris Erickson, Aspen Melton and Shayla Jordan. The coach was Tim Lundt.

The third-place team, Auto-Eviscerators from Cordova High School included team captain Craig Bailer, Keegan Irving, Christina Morrisett, Sophia Myers, and Jessica Smyke. The team was coached by Alice Dou-Wang.

The Phycodurus eques team from Ketchikan High School scored in the top ten taking 7th place. Students on the Phycodurus eques team included Susie McKee (team captain), Caleb Cruz Hedin, Jessica Pringle, Kate Ross, and Dylan Carlson. Julie Landwehr and Gary Freitag coached the team. The project for the Ketchikan High School Team was "Effects of Harmful Algal Blooms in Southeast Alaska". The Phycodurus eques team scored 10th in the Research Project division and placed 7th overall in the 2011 Alaska Tsunami Bowl.

Twenty teams from 15 high schools across Alaska, from Unalaska to Ketchikan, competed in the Tsunami Bowl. This year, teams from Dillingham, Sitka, Kotlik and Scammon Bay competed for the first time.

The first-place team won a free trip to compete against other regional teams in the NOSB finals in Galveston, Texas in April. The top two teams won scholarships to the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the University of Alaska Southeast.

The National Ocean Sciences Bowl was established in 1998 to encourage learning about the oceans and increase the teaching of ocean sciences in high schools. The Consortium for Ocean Leadership supports the NOSB. Several sponsors support the regional competition, including the UAF School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences and Alaska Sea Grant.

This was the 14th annual competition.

On the Web:

Download the 2011 Alaska Tsunami Bowl Team Scores
http://seagrant.uaf.edu/nosb/2011/2011-team-scores.pdf

Overall standings/ Research project plus quiz bowl
http://seagrant.uaf.edu/nosb/2011/game.php

Team Members
http://seagrant.uaf.edu/nosb/2011/teams.html

Source of News & Photo:

UAF School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences and Alaska Sea Grant
http://www.sfos.uaf.edu/

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Ketchikan, Alaska