The Yeti Crabs are back from the National Ocean Sciences Bowl, no titles in hand, but with a wealth of stories to tell, new friends and experiences under their belts.
Their long, exciting journey from Cordova to Boulder, CO, began on Wednesday, April 18, in the wake of beating 21 other high school teams from throughout Alaska in early February to win the Alaska Tsunami Ocean Sciences Bowl.
On top of the Tsunami Bowl win, the Yeti Crabs also won best paper and best overall project for their work on “The Impact of Extreme Snow Events on Alaska.”
Alaska is the only regional bowl that requires teams to submit a project, something that didn’t sink in until they arrived for the national competition in Boulder explained Lauren Bien, Prince William Sound Science Center’s science education coordinator and coach.
Members of the Yeti Crabs include, seniors Cori Pegau and Marie Esguerra, junior Reid Williams and sophomore MiKita DeCook.
They practiced roughly twice a week leading up to the competition and even on the airplane during their 2,200-mile journey. “I looked over at one point and they were reading an oceanography text book,” Bien said.
Out of the 351 teams who competed in the regional science bowls, only 23 teams continued on to nationals.
“It was neat to be a new rookie team that had earned their spot there… no Cordova team has ever made it to nationals before,” Bien said. “(We) really wanted to represent Cordova well and Alaska.”
The Yeti Crabs faced fierce competitors during the mock congressional hearings and buzzer-style competition.
The students had about one month to prepare, study and practice their Science Expert Briefing. Students took the role of stakeholders and gave recommendations on a piece of legislation in written and oral testimonies. The oral testimonies were presented to a panel of judges acting as “members of congress” on Saturday, April 21 during the competition.
There were five categories: Federal Agency, State Agency, Academia, Non-Governmental Organization and Industry.
Since the Yeti Crabs were a team of four, Cori Pegau played the role of both the Federal and State Agency. MiKita DeCook presented Academia, Marie Esguerra presented NGO and Reid Williams presented Industry.
“The level of competition…we were up against a lot of schools who have been making it to nationals for 10, 12, 15 years,” Bien said.
Arriving in Boulder, they started their long weekend with an educational field trip
They explored the National Center for Atmospheric Research, toured the research aviation facility and military planes that have been outfitted for atmospheric research, hiked in the Flatirons and took a tour of the University of Colorado Boulder.
Bien said the field trip and competition exposed the students to various careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
