HARBOR BRANCH - OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE

HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS FROM AROUND THE STATE TO COMPETE AT HARBOR BRANCH IN NATIONAL OCEAN SCIENCES BOWL

FT. PIERCE, Fla. -- On Saturday, Feb. 21, teams of high school students from around the state will face off at the HARBOR BRANCH Oceanographic Institution in the Florida regional competition of the National Ocean Sciences Bowl, now also known as the "Manatee Bowl." Teams will battle throughout the day in exciting rapid-fire buzzer rounds answering questions on a wide range of ocean-related topics. Students will be vying for prizes, scholarships, and internships, and the winning team will progress to the national finals in Charleston, South Carolina in April.

"This is going to be both a challenging and a fun event, not only for the students, but for their teachers, and the scientists and volunteers who will be hosting, organizing, and volunteering," says Dr. Dennis Hanisak, HARBOR BRANCH's Director of Marine Education and coordinator of this event. "It's an opportunity for Florida's high school students to showcase their interest and understanding of one of our greatest resources, the oceans," he says.

The National Ocean Science Bowl is organized by the Consortium for Oceanographic Research and Education (CORE), the Washington, DC-based association of U.S. oceanographic research institutions, universities, laboratories, and aquaria. The competition was designed to showcase college and career opportunities in the ocean sciences for students in an exciting way, with the goal of helping to prepare the next generation of marine scientists.

Students around the country spend months working with volunteer coaches to get ready for competitions, which pit four-student teams against each other in intense double-elimination rounds. Students score points by being the first to buzz in with the correct answers to multiple choice and short-answer questions covering ocean biology, chemistry, geology, physics, navigation, geography, and related history, literature and public policy. In all, more than 1,400 scientists, researchers, teachers and marine science experts volunteer their time to make the regional and national events a success.

HARBOR BRANCH is jointly sponsoring the event with the University of Miami's Rosential School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, and moderators and judges for the event will be drawn from both institutions.

Competitors will be arriving on Friday, Feb. 20 for afternoon tours of HARBOR BRANCH and an opening reception. The competition will take place Saturday beginning at 8:00 a.m., with final rounds running from approximately 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. An awards ceremony will immediately follow the competition. Saturday night, there will be a dinner for participants as well as a special presentation by HARBOR BRANCH scientist John Reed, called "Florida's Deep-sea Coral Reefs, National Treasures in Peril."

For more information about the NOSB, please visit www.nosb.org, and for sample competition questions, click on "Test Your Ocean Knowledge."

Reporters are welcome to attend any portion of the competition. For more information or to make arrangements to attend, please contact Mark Schrope, 772-216-0390, schrope@hboi.edu. Photos from the competition will be available.

HARBOR BRANCH Oceanographic Institution was founded in Ft. Pierce, Fla., in 1971 to support the exploration and conservation of the world's oceans. The institution has held to this mission and grown into one of the world's leading oceanographic institutions with a 500-acre campus, over 200 personnel, and a fleet of sophisticated research ships and submersibles.