By Russell Omo

[email protected]

Every year, students who excel in the study of science gather to compete in the annual Hawaii Science Bowl at Honolulu Community College on Jan. 26, seeking to earn a coveted spot in the National Science Bowl held in Washington D.C. and a donation of 500 dollars for the winning school’s science department. This year was the first that Chemistry Teacher Matthew Capps coached the Mililani Science Bowl team, who, as well as the team, left with an experience worth keeping.

“We did pretty well considering we prepared the best we could and that we were met with rather unfortunate circumstances in that we had a really, really tough teams to play against, but I think we did well as a team,” explained Team Captain Senior Evan Wilson, who had competed in the Hawaii Science Bowl for three years.

The Science Bowl has a total of 20 teams competing and is organized in several brackets, which the top Team of each bracket moves on to compete in the final rounds, which the team from Maui took first. MHS’ bracket, named “Honua”, was primarily comprised of private schools, with the exception of MHS and Kealakehe High School. The team, comprised of seniors Evan Wilson, Brandon Quan, Stephen Mau, and Alec Ikei, were placed fourth within their bracket, but won the wild card round, granting them a donation of 50 dollars to the MHS science department.

Included with the intense competition came the internal balance of intellectual courage and humility. “It’s difficult because you think you know a question but you don’t want to get it wrong, because if you answer it wrong too quickly then your team loses points,” expressed Quan, who had competed for two years.

Questions in the Science Bowl are not average problems that are found on a science quiz, rather, a variety of highly technical scenarios that test the extent of the competitor’s knowledge and skill in science. “A lot of the questions, the chemistry ones, some of those I wouldn’t even teach in AP Chemistry because it’s not related to the exam,” said Capps, continuing, “They’re very difficult questions, they’re very random questions, so I would rate their difficulty as high.”

Preparation for the Science Bowl consisted of mock competitions every week and studying scientific articles. Along with training and learning new material, a strong character is required. “You have to not be afraid to compete and not be afraid to lose. You have to be willing to go up against some of the best teams in the state and country and to not back down,” explained Capps.

MHS’ team, despite not having reached the major placements, left the competition with a valued experience. “You become a lot closer to the people you participate with, and you also learn a lot more,” said Wilson. Capps, for his first time coaching the team, also left with fond experience, expressing, “I think I’ve also gotten a new appreciation for the amount of time that the other coaches and the students have put into their programs and it gives me a new appreciation for my team, because they all work very hard and they’re all very intelligent and I appreciate the job they did (at the Science Bowl).”

With the whole team graduating after this school year, Capps awaits a new roster of students for the team and hopes to implement what he had learned from this year’s Science Bowl.