Lightning-fast fingers and minds won the juniors first place at the Science Bowl class competition during long lunch this Wednesday. The Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics club (WiSTEM) hosted the event as part of its series of efforts this week to support girls’ education in Africa.

The contest comprised three rounds: two preliminaries and a final. In each round, Chemistry teacher Robbie Korin asked different multiple-choice and short-answer questions about diverse fields of science—physics, earth science, chemistry, biology, and more—as well as about African girls’ education. Two teams, each equipped with four buzzers, compete to buzz in fastest with the correct answers. At the end of the round, the team with the most correctly answered questions won.

In the preliminary rounds, the juniors defeated the sophomores 11–5, and the seniors defeated the freshmen 13–8. In the finals, the juniors won against the seniors 20–6.

The competition was designed both to raise awareness about African girls’ education and to encourage science in general. WiSTEM president Josephine Chen (12) said the event was successful.

“It’s good because people decide to actually look at the facts we posted around the school and in the cupcakes… and [to try] to remember [the information], which is the whole point of the event—promoting girl’s education,” she said.

As additional incentive for people to participate or to watch, the Science Bowl was made a class competition for spirit points. In the end, the freshmen and the sophomores tied for last place and earned 200 points; the seniors ended in second place and earned 300 points. The juniors won first place and earned 400 points, reinforcing their lead so far this year.

Albert Wu (11) said, “[This contest] was very exciting and good for my class… and it was a really great way to promote the educational cause of WiSTEM and to learn about science.”