TAMUG Hosts the 2020 Dolphin Challenge

By Makayla Hillin '21

|Photo: Chuck Snyder, Guest Photographer

The winning team! (Left to Right) Howard Orlina, Kasey Meyer, Hadley Madlock, Emily Smith. Amadeo Scott, and Coach Dr. Lindsey Waddell.

The annual National Ocean Science Bowl, or Dolphin Challenge, was held February 1st at Texas A&M University at Galveston.

The Dolphin Challenge is intended for high schoolers who want to increase their knowledge of ocean-related research. This year’s challenge consisted of 65 students, broken into 12 teams, from eight different schools. One of the schools traveled from Hot Springs, Arizona. A team was made of three students and a captain.

After a long and somewhat intense day, Team A from Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and Arts (Hot Springs, AR) placed first. The second-place team was also Team A from Louis D. Brandeis High School (San Antonio, TX).

The National Ocean Science Bowl gave out a sportsmanship award. This award was decided on by the officials and was given to the team who had the best sportsmanship and positive attitude throughout the day. Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts (Houston, TX), Team A, was awarded this.

Eight rounds of challenges were completed by each team. Each round had two sets of quizzes and a buzzer round. The teams had four minutes to complete the quiz questions either individually or as a group.

When it was time for the buzzer round, the students gripped them as they waited for the questions to be read aloud. Once a member of the team buzzed in, they had to make a guess from the choices given. If it was answered correctly, they received four points and a bonus question which was worth six. The teams would continue to answer bonus questions until they answered one incorrectly. However, if the initial question was answered incorrectly, the other team had a chance to answer it correctly. If both teams answered incorrectly the correct was given and then the next question was read.