A new generation of science whizzes competed Saturday in the New Physics Building, where some of those students will have classes in a year or two, for the chance to go to the National Science Bowl.
Seventeen high schools from around the state went head-to-head in the North Central Florida Regional Science Bowl, answering questions that could make your head hurt.
What is the crystalline shape of diamonds? A tetrahedron. In a totally inelastic collision, what happens to the objects? They stick together.
NASA lost a $121 million Mars rover. Why? Because it was driven into a crater.
The basic stuff.
Throughout the day, teams were weeded out one by one.
That night, it came down to the top two. Maclay School went up against Palm Harbor University High School.
Carrying the lead into the final round, Palm Harbor University High, made up of five International Baccalaureate seniors with dreams of becoming doctors and working for a military defense think tank, were the team to beat.
There was a relaxed atmosphere around them. During a break in an earlier round, they played hangman while their competitors studied notebooks.
“A lot of the time, it’s really helpful to make terrible science jokes,” said 17-year-old Stefan Musser of Palm Harbor.
His team had already beat the Maclay School once before the finals. Since Palm Harbor was undefeated, Maclay had to win against them twice to win the competition.
Then, Maclay won once.
“Trust me, I’ve played Cinderella many times,” said Matthew Schnippert, coach for the Maclay team.
In the last round, the score went back and forth. With five minutes left, they were tied with 66 points each.
They sped through questions about the half-lives of radioactive particles and household items containing mercury.
Then, the final question: Why was Pluto downgraded from a planet to a dwarf planet?
A participant for Maclay buzzed in and gave the answer: It hasn’t cleared its orbit.
The final score was 98 to 66 — a victory for Maclay.
“I did not feel like we were going to be able to come back,” said Jasper Brey, who was on the Maclay team. “It felt like a movie, like a sports movie.”
His team will now go on to compete in the national competition.
However, a time conflict means they’ll have to miss their senior prom and the AP chemistry exam. They’ll be able to make up the exam, but not the dance.
But that’s OK with Brey.
“[The prom] kind of pales in comparison to going to D.C.,” he said.
