Oceans Bowl, a science academic team that solely focuses on the oceanic world, placed fourth overall in its annual competition at JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) at Caltech on Feb. 28. Participants prepared themselves constantly by having weekly meetings where they learned about innovative “buzzer” skills that allowed them to answer questions faster and more efficiently.

“During scrimmages and competition, I got to meet so many new and interesting people who shared the same interests as me,” sophomore Michael Tram said. “Also, while preparing for competition, I got to learn a lot more about the ocean and marine life,which aren’t really taught in science classes here at Woodbridge.”

Meanwhile another science academic team, Science Bowl, which covers and studies various fields of science, placed eighth in its competition on Jan. 3. Under science teacher Bryan Pacheco’s advisement, the team formed a stronger sense of teamwork as members expanded their individual knowledge.

“The Science Bowl tests such a wide variety of science knowledge as well as ability to use formulas and such to find answers as quickly as possible,” junior Daniel Sun said. “Since it’s a team event you get to work together on the bonus questions, which is even more fun.”

Both of these teams put efforts to not only grow as a team and develop their scientific knowledge, but also maintain the popularity of the sciences on campus by promoting the importance of science.

“Both are buzzer competitions where speed as well as content knowledge are critical. The students in both teams are great.  Very smart and talented individuals,” Pacheco said. “ We try to assemble a new team for next years competition, as almost all of them were seniors and are graduating.”