Students from Richard Montgomery High School showed their scientific and mathematical skills as they won the Maryland Regional Science Bowl7 championship on February 23, putting them in the running for the national competition.

First-place regional winners will face 62 other student teams from across the country at the Department of Energy's 12th Anniversary National Science Bowl7 competition on May 3-6, at the National 4-H Center in Chevy Chase, Maryland. The national champions will win a two-week trip to London to attend the International Youth Science Forum.

Montgomery Blair High School took second place in the Maryland Regional Science Bowl, and Thomas S. Wootton High School captured fourth place. In the D.C. competition, Sidwell Friends School came in first, and in Virginia, Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology took first place.

The Department of Energy created the National Science Bowl7 in 1991 to encourage American high school students to excel in math and science and to pursue careers in these fields. By recognizing and rewarding successful math and science students, the National Science Bowl7 generates enthusiasm for science and engineering. More than 11,000 high school students are participating in the Science Bowl competition nationwide this year.

For the regional qualifying rounds held at the Department of Energy headquarters, student teams from 23 schools in Maryland and the District of Columbia faced rounds of increasingly difficult questions in biology, chemistry, physics, astronomy, earth science, computer science and mathematics. The teams are composed of five students and a teacher who serves as an advisor and coach. The competitions consisted of round robins followed by double elimination finals.