Textbooks for the DHS National Ocean Science Bowl (NOSB) Quiz Team
Wilbur Tong
Dexter High School
The National Ocean Sciences Bowl (NOSB) is a national academic competition where teams of high school students compete for the regional and national title. The matches feature quiz-bowl style rounds and challenge questions that test a team’s ocean and Great Lakes knowledge. The questions focus on math and science related to ocean and Great Lakes biology, chemistry, geology, physics, technology, history, and economics.
Our current collection of study materials include textbooks and references that simply are outdated. Advancements in marine science continue at a rapid pace. For example, in June 2021 a new ocean was formally recognized by the The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) - the Southern Ocean.
During the Great Lakes Bowl competition in February, we usually clash head-to-head against several local high schools: Ann Arbor Huron, Greenhills School, Saline, and Troy. The addition of new, current textbooks will greatly facilitate our learning and studies to help our team contend against our local competition.
impact
As a service to our community, members of our Ocean Bowl team intend on visiting younger students (middle school and elementary school) and provide an ocean science workshop focusing on marine sciences and conservation. The workshop will include interactive presentations and hands-on activities for students to experience.
"Ocean Bowl has been such an amazing experience. My friend convinced me to join so that they would have enough people last year, but it has been such a joy to be apart of. I have met so many amazing people, learned so much about the ocean, and had a lot of fun. I really enjoyed the atmosphere and the ability to show off my knowledge with my friends. I look forward to having another year of this club, but it can be very hard to run lessons as we currently all have different textbooks. Most of these textbooks are also out of date and don’t adequately prepare us for the competition. The other schools we compete against have full fledged oceanography classes and current textbooks, clearly they are at an advantage against us. Having the same textbooks would help us compete against the other teams better and reach our full potential."
- Isa Reyes, NOSB Co-Captain, Class of 2021
"Joining the club was one of the best decisions I could have ever made. I have since learned an incredible amount about how important ocean ecosystems are, and how our actions greatly impact them. It has given me a passion and an interest to pursue higher education in environmental sciences. At the moment every member of our club has to learn from different books. This makes it really hard for the club to learn materials together and have profound discussions during our meetings. There is no way that our small club could fundraise enough money to get new textbooks by ourselves. This grant allowing us to get new up-to-date textbooks would greatly benefit our studying and comprehension of ocean sciences."
- Emily Hutchings, NOSB Co-Captain, Class of 2021
"I have been on the DHS Ocean Bowl team since freshman year, and this year I am a co-captain of the team. This club has been a constant for me, even through the pandemic and has changed my life for the better. Working with the other captains and helping lead meetings has given me so much confidence and allowed me to learn so much and find a new passion for oceanography (which I intend to pursue in college). This club has had a lasting effect on my life, and I hope that it can continue to do so for others in the future.
For this reason, it is of the utmost importance to me and to the other members of Ocean Bowl for us to get new textbooks that would allow for club-wide learning and collaboration. At the moment, all we have are a random assortment of dated textbooks that may or may not have relevant information, and since we don’t have more than one or two copies of each book, no one is able to study from the same resource or learn at the same rate. If we were able to get multiple copies of one reliable source, we would be able to discuss topics which we all had the materials to study and would be set up to be more successful in the long-run. These books would allow Ocean Bowl to thrive and would last us for years to come.
I love Ocean Bowl so much and it has given me many opportunities and memories, so I want this club to continue to attract high schoolers to marine sciences even after I have graduated. These textbooks are a big step in that direction. They would make a huge difference in Ocean Bowl’s success rate and would supply the club with much-needed materials that may one day help to foster a passion for oceanography in young minds."
-Malia Yalisove, NOSB Co-Captain, Class of 2022