By: Tiffany Whitfield

A nearly three decades old competition, the Blue Crab Bowl, synergized with some of the brightest scientific minds from across the Commonwealth of Virginia and will face off under a new consortium beginning in 2024 under the Center for Ocean Leadership at the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR). This gap year means that a national bowl will not be held in 2023 for high school competitors. However, Old Dominion University’s Department of Ocean & Earth Sciences (OES) faculty are filling the gap and are planning to offer competing high schools an opportunity to face off meaning the bowl will go on this year under a new name.

On February 25, 2023, this year’s competition will be called the ODU Ocean Bowl exclusively hosted by ODU’s OES faculty. High school competitors will use the same format as the traditional Blue Crab Bowl with a buzzer-based competition of toss-up and bonus questions and written collaborative team challenge questions. Volunteers are welcome to take part in this one-of-a-kind science bowl and serve as match officials and more on the day of the competition.

“In 2023, as the National Ocean Sciences Bowl (NOSB) reorganizes as part of UCAR and will not be supporting NOSB regional competitions, many of our faculty, staff, and students at ODU have enthusiastically stepped forward to fill the void by offering the 2023 ODU Ocean Bowl,” said Bill Dunn, ODU's regional coordinator, and a former Blue Crab Bowl coach. “Their efforts will allow us to continue this annual event that is a high point for many high school students, many of whom enroll at ODU!”

This competition will assemble high school students who have a high enthusiasm for marine science and helps to introduce those students to scientific opportunities at ODU.

OES Chair Fred Dobbs is “very pleased that we’re continuing this long-lived competition”.

Each team of officials includes a moderator who reads the questions, a science judge who rules on the answers, a rules judge who monitors the match, a timekeeper, and a scorekeeper. Additionally, judges for the written team challenge questions are needed. All ODU faculty, staff, and graduate, and undergraduate students are encouraged to volunteer. No experience is necessary as there are several opportunities for practice planned before the event. If anyone would like to help or have questions, please contact our bowl coordinator, Bill Dunn, at wdunn@odu.edu. 

Every year since 1998, ODU’s OES in partnership with the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) hosts the Blue Crab Bowl. “Even though VIMS will not be participating this year, their support over the years has been tremendous,” said Dunn.

The BCB was one of 15 founding regional competitions across the nation under the auspices of the NOSB which was part of the Consortium for Ocean Leadership that included ODU. However, after the NOSB was dissolved in 2022, the consortium migrated to the new Center for Ocean Leadership at UCAR which also includes ODU as a member institution. As a result, 2023 is a transition year for NOSB and no national or NOSB-sponsored regional competitions will take place in 2023 while NOSB reorganizes at its new home. 

Several NOSB host institutions across the nation, including ODU, decided to independently sponsor a gap-filler competition in 2023. As OES faculty and staff prepare to host the competition, consider volunteering to showcase how Monarch science reveals a new way of learning and doing science for potential new Monarchs.