The Stonehill Science Bowl is an annual event organised by high school students at Stonehill International School, Bangalore. The competition has grown to receive interest from passionate STEM students across the world. This year, there were registrations from countries such as Oman, Indonesia, Pakistan and China along with schools across India.
The Stonehill Science Bowl has been a student-led initiative since 2018 and has evolved into Stonehill’s most prestigious Science event of the year. This year, the event was divided between grades 9-12 and grades 6-8. The High School event was online as it was International and the Middle School event was held on campus.
For the High School event, there was widespread participation from 112 students from over 19 schools from India and overseas. The two-day virtual event was held on the 23rd and 24th of September. This year’s Science Bowl was based on Physics, Chemistry, Biology, and Mathematics. The participants experienced a myriad of opportunities, ranging from intense competition rounds to easy going fun rounds.
The University of Bristol sponsored the event and two professors conducted mock lectures on magnetism, superconductivity and on the development of novel porous materials for CO2 capture. The online event concluded with Team Sunboys from Bangalore International School winning the Bowl.
The Middle School event, held on campus on the 28th of September, was the first social event post-covid where students from different schools were meeting up. It began with an assembling of a quiet group of students who went on to create wonderful energy at the end of the day. The students were thrown a couple of STEM challenges like making the tallest paper tower which could hold up a tennis ball. They also had to design and create a roller coaster using scientific principles with bare minimum materials. The day concluded with Canadian International School winning the Bowl.
An interesting element was that six out of the nine winners were girls for the Middle School competition. The percentage of girls participating was 38% for the High School event, which is high for any STEM competition. Through such events, a STEM mindset is instilled among students, especially girls, at a very early stage in the education system to dispel future biases.
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