Congratulations to the St. Andrew’s Science Bowl Team. After winning the regional Science Bowl competition here in Amarillo last January, the team travelled to Denver to compete in the National Competition in June. The five-member team of middle school students finished first in the Hydrogen Fuel Cell Car Competition and third in the overall competition.

There are two competitions at the National Middle School Science Bowl - an academic math and science competition and a model hydrogen fuel cell car challenge. The academic competition is a fast-paced question-and-answer contest where students answer questions about earth science, physical science, life science, math, and general science. The model hydrogen fuel cell car challenge tests the students’ ability to design, build, and race model cars.

The St. Andrew’s team won the car competition when their model car finished a final 10-meter race in 3.58 seconds. This is the second year in a row that St. Andrew’s has placed first at this national competition. Their win earned them a trophy more than 5-feet tall and a $500 prize for St. Andrew’s.

The team also placed third in the overall science and math portion of the competition, a noteworthy accomplishment given the caliber of teams from across the country. Team members included Kunal Mehta (Captain), Niral Desai, Cooper Lindsey, Saahil Mehta and alternate, Nikit Desai. The team was coached by St. Andrew’s Middle School Teacher, Marcella Herrington. Also in attendance was Sara Burkhard, the incoming science middle school teacher replacing Mrs. Herrington who retired in May. Bios for the team are included below.

The Department of Energy (DOE) created the National Science Bowl in 1991 to encourage high school students to excel in mathematics and science and to pursue careers in these fields. In 2002, DOE started a similar competition for middle school students. More than 180 middle school students competed in the national finals.

The success of the St. Andrew’s Team was recently chronicled by the Amarillo Globe News. Click here to get the full story.

About The Team -- Kunal Mehta, team captain, graduated in May and this was his second trip to the National Science Bowl. He was also a three-time school spelling bee champion, placed 11th in the state geography bee, and achieved state honors in Science Fair, MathCounts, TAME, and other academic contests. In his spare time, he is an avid tennis player and plays the guitar, but his favorite activity is sleeping. He hopes to go to Harvard and pursue a career in business. His favorite food is...anything that is vegetarian, and his favorite show is “Futurama.” Niral Desai is an eighth grader. He has been to several competitions, including MathCounts, TAME Math and Science Competition, and Science Bowl. He plays piano and a little tennis. In his free time, he enjoys playing video games, playing on his computer, solving Rubik’s Cubes, and sometimes playing DDR. Niral is the funniest guy in school and moonwalks from class to class. Cooper Lindsey, just graduated and this was his first Science Bowl competition. His interests include sleeping, watching TV, and more currently, studying for Science Bowl. Cooper wants to eventually work in the “field” of nuclear physics, like in Fermi Lab, for example. Cooper thinks this would be a lot of fun, and as Confucius once said, “Pick a job you love and you will not work a day in your life Saahil Mehta is a seventh grader who has done some competitions such as MathCounts, TAME, Science Bowl, and others. His hobbies include video games, tennis, piano, DDR, and math. He considers himself a Mathlete, having won chapter MathCounts, and he enjoys competing against others on the Art of Problem Solving Web site. This was his second trip to compete in the National Science Bowl. Nikit Desai is a sixth grader who enjoys playing tennis. He is a straight-A student and likes to play golf, cricket, tennis, and basketball. He has two siblings; Niral, who is also on the team, and Priyal, his sister who is in college. His favorite subject is social studies.