Orca Bowl

Posted by Karin Hoffman, Communications

The 2009 Orca Bowl is almost here. What is Orca Bowl you may ask? Orca Bowl (also known as the Washington State Ocean Sciences Bowl) is an annual competition where teams of high school students from across the state tackle questions in areas of earth and social sciences related to the oceans and ocean technology, which means that students have to be knowledgeable about physics, chemistry, geology and biology. The winning team from Washington will go on to compete at the national competition in Washington, D.C. This year the Burke is proud to be a sponsor of this event and will be hosting the awards ceremony

Where: South Campus Center, University of Washington Seattle campus
When: Saturday, February 7, 2009

So, how would I do if I entered the Orca Bowl? Well, after attempting to answer several practice questions, not very well. Granted, I didn’t study and I learned most of this information in high school (which was a long time ago), but I am very impressed at the level of knowledge these students need to have to compete in this event.

Here are a couple sample questions taken from the National Ocean Sciences Bowl website. Let’s see how you do (you can find the answers by clicking on More.) I’ll start with an easy one (according to the NOSB website it’s easy.)

1. Strong currents that occur along the eastern coasts of the United States and Japan are:

a. Eastern boundary currents
b. Western boundary currents
c. Southern boundary currents
d. Northern boundary currents

Now that you’re warmed up, here’s a harder question from the chemistry section.

2. Which sea is most supersaturated with oxygen?

a. Bering Sea
b. Okhotsk Sea
c. Barents Sea
d. Norwegian Sea

More...

Answers:
1. Western boundary currents
2. Barents Sea