PADUCAH – Calloway County is the U.S. Department of Energy’s Regional Middle School Science Bowl winner and will compete in the National Science Bowl April 26-30 in Washington, D.C.

The five-student Calloway County team won the Feb. 24 regional competition in Crounse Hall on the University of Kentucky Extension Campus at West Kentucky Community & Technical College. Paducah Middle School, last year’s winner, finished second. Ballard County Middle School finished third. 

Immediately after Calloway County won, the school reported the victory over the public address system, said Scott Powell, academic team coach. When team members returned to school, teachers greeted them with smiles and congratulations.

“It means a lot to our school to win this championship,” Pile said. 

Pile said his squad talked strategy, studied in the evenings, and held several practices to simulate game competition in science and mathematics. The team will continue practicing questions in competitive quick-recall format to prepare for the national competition.

“The difference will be in the hands-on challenge – our team is required to build an electric battery-powered car,” Pile said. “That will take hours of creative engineering.”

Paducah Middle School finished second nationally in the 2011 National Science Bowl’s battery-powered car competition.

Other 2012 DOE Regional Science Bowl competitors were from North Oldham, Henderson North, Benton, St. Mary, West Kentucky Home Schools United, Heath, and Livingston County middle schools. 

Lone Oak High School won the Feb. 10 regional high school competition.

Regional winners receive expense-paid trips to Washington for DOE’s National Science Bowl, America’s largest and most prestigious science competition for middle and high school students. It is the only educational event and academic competition that is sponsored by a federal agency.

Winning high school teams at the National Science Bowl compete for science trips, and past winners have gone to France, England, Belize, and Alaska. 

The regional competition was sponsored by DOE, UK-Paducah Campus, WKCTC, and the Paducah Area Chamber of Commerce’s Business Education Partnership. 

Contributing businesses: A&K Construction, Computer Services Inc., LATA Environmental Services of Kentucky, EHI Consultants, ISP Chemicals, Performance Results Corp., Radiation Physics Solutions, Swift & Staley Mechanical Contractors, U.S. Enrichment Corp., and White House Design.