Blue Heron Bowl Champs Head to National Ocean Sciences Bowl

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:
Diana Hackenburg, North Carolina Sea Grant, 919-515-1092, dmhacken@ncsu.edu
Kerry Irish, UNC Institute of Marine Sciences, 252-726-6841 x126, irish@unc.edu

Posted Monday, March 21, 2016

As winners of the 2016 Blue Heron Bowl, students from Walter M. Williams High School in Burlington will face-off against 23 other teams at the National Ocean Sciences Bowl, April 21 to 24 in Morehead City.

The Blue Heron Bowl is a regional competition of the national program known as NOSB. The N.C. event was held in February in Morehead City. Teams of high-school students from across the state participated in the daylong quiz bowl focusing on all things marine science.

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Institute of Marine Sciences, in concert with Seahorse Coastal Consulting, hosted the event on the campus of Carteret Community College. Cosponsors included North Carolina Sea Grant, the N.C. Biotechnology Center, N.C. Seafood Festival and Discovery Diving.

Williams High brought two teams to the event under head coach Erica Bower and assistant coach Alicia Curtis. Student members of the winning team are Jos Boswell, Misbah Chhotani, Carimar Melendez, Riley Nelson and Hanna Tawasha.

Other schools that took home honors in the 2016 N.C. Blue Heron Bowl competition were:

• Second Place — Chapel Hill High School in Orange County
• Third Place — Eugene Ashley High School in New Hanover County
• Sportsmanship — Swansboro High School in Onslow County

The winning Williams High team will head to the national competition, which also will be hosted by the Institute of Marine Sciences at Carteret Community College. Many of the Blue Heron Bowl sponsors are also supporting the national event.

NOSB is an academic competition and program to address a national gap in environmental and earth sciences in public education. It introduces high-school students to marine sciences, in preparation for potential STEM careers — in science, technology, engineering and math. Overall, the program also helps them become knowledgeable citizens and environmental stewards.

For information on the national competition, visit nosb.org. To consider volunteering in April, check postings from @UNCims and @NOSBRocks via Twitter.

The University of North Carolina Wilmington will host the 2017 Blue Heron Bowl. For more information on the N.C. competition, go to sites.google.com/site/blueheronbowl/.

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