Spoonbill

Overview

2025 NOSB – Spoonbill Bowl Competition
The new home of the NOSB is the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR). UCAR is still building up the programming and grant support needed to host the NOSB finals, therefore there will not be a national final competition.

Due to reduced budgeting, we are interested in hosting a small, scaled down regional competition in March 2025.

Limit: One team per school
Tentatively there will be a 2025 Spoonbill Bowl competition March 1, 2025
 
Spoonbill Bowl
The NOSB is an academic competition and program that addresses a national gap in environmental and earth sciences in public education by introducing high school students to and engaging them in ocean science, preparing them for ocean science-related and other STEM careers, and helping them become knowledgeable citizens and environmental stewards.

What happens at the Spoonbill Bowl?
The Spoonbill Bowl consists of a round-robin and single-elimination formats for teams of high school students. The format involves a timed competition of multiple-choice or short-answer questions within the broad category of the oceans. Questions are drawn from the scientific and technical disciplines used in studying the oceans (physics, chemistry, geology, atmospheric science, biology, etc.) as well as topics on the contributions of the oceans to national and international economics, history, and culture.

Why do we have a competition?
It is our hope that during this competition teams, coaches and volunteers will have fun while increasing understanding about the oceans, advancing ocean literacy, and raising the visibility of ocean-related research.

Spoonbill Bowl Fans, thanks again to all who competed and supported last year's competition.

COACHES & TEAMS: If you are interested in competing in the Spoonbill Bowl please complete a Teams Registration form. 

Team registrations are accepted from September 15 - November 22.

There is a $100 registration due no later than November 22.

VOLUNTEERS: If you are interested in volunteering for the Spoonbill Bowl, please complete a Volunteer Registration form.

Volunteers must attend two trainings between January and February. Training sessions are 1 hour.

Volunteer registrations are accepted from November 1 - January 15.

Volunteer Training Dates: TBD Trainings are January - February.

QUESTION REVIEWERS: If you are interested in volunteering to review questions for the competition, please send an email to greely@usf.edu. Questions are reviewed December - January.

QUESTIONS: Email Teresa Greely, greely@usf.edu or burrowsm@usf.edu.