Davis Drive Science Bowl

Interest Meeting

Welcome

Welcome to the 2025-26 Middle School Science Bowl Interest Meeting!

• State Competition Day is March 14, 2026 (in-person vs. virtual still TBD)
• National Finals is April 30 - May 4, 2026
• https://science.osti.gov/wdts/nsb

Intro to Coaches

DDMS Club Advisor

Ms. Dunning

mdunning3@wcpss.net

Davis Drive Instructional Facilitator

2021 - Present

8th Grade Math Teacher

2015 - 2021

Head Coach-

Sashank Ganapathiraju

• Senior at UNC Chapel Hill
• DDMS Science Bowl from 2016-18
• Green Hope Science Bowl from 2018-2022
• Studying neuroscience and computer science, on the path to become a surgeon!

Coach-

Aadil Mohammed

• Junior at UNC Chapel Hill
• DDMS Science Bowl from 2017-2019
• Green Hope Science Bowl from 2019-2022
• Studying neuroscience and health policy, on the path to become a physician!

Coach-

Abhishek Shah

• Freshman at MIT
• DDMS Science Bowl from 2019-2021
• Green Level Science Bowl from 2022-2025
• Interested in computer science, and especially AI!

Coach-

Adhav Kumar

• Senior at Research Triangle High School
• DDMS Science Bowl from 2020-2022
• Interested in Chemistry, Physics, and Materials Science

Teams

• Max 3 teams/school allowed
• Each team has 5 students, so 15 total competitors from DDMS

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Format

• Buzzers!
• Two teams facing each other head-to-head
• First competition is regionals (schools from all over NC and SC)
• Winner of regionals goes to nationals in Washington DC from April 30-May, 2026 (all expenses paid!)
• Only the winning TEAM (of 5 students) goes to Nationals – NOT the whole winning school

6 subjects of questions

• Biology
• Chemistry
• Physics
• Earth and Space Science
• Math
• Energy

Sample Competition from 2025 National Championship Round

Note: the difficulty here is INSANE compared to what we will be starting with, as this is the final round of the National Finals. Do not worry if you cannot answer any of the shown questions yet

What you Need to Know

1. Team competition (min 4, max 5)
2. Above grade-level competition
3. A lot of effort needed outside of school
4. Will practice buzzing during Saturday meetings
5. Content is on you to study, for which we will provide guidance with textbooks and other resources

History

• Started at DDMS in 2016-17
• North Carolina Champions for 6 out of the 7 years of competitions held
• Placed in the top-20 at Nationals in multiple years

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2024’s team winning 3rd place in Washington, D.C!

Studying

• Each student will pick 1-2 subjects eventually, so that they can study from a relevant textbook with the help of coaches, parents, and friends

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• They must master the content that is assigned to them

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Study Resources

Sample Questions from NSB

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Khan Academy

Studying

• Textbooks are online!
• Thousands of practice questions on the Science Bowl website, some of which we will go over in our practices, but the students go over them in their own time
• Science Bowl is time-consuming
• I promise that it is fun, but only if you’re also learning the content!

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Commitment

• On competition day, first priority must be Science Bowl
• You MUST be available on competition day to participate in Science Bowl this year

Tryouts

• Friday, September 19, 2025
• 3:30 - 4:30 PM, Media Center
• Written exam
• Split into sections based on topics in Science Bowl (all, except Energy)
• Will. Be. Competitive.

Please fill this interest form IMMEDIATELY!

tinyurl.com/scibowl2025