Mira Loma High School Wins Sacramento Science Bowl

FOLSOM, Calif.—A team from Mira Loma High School won the Sacramento-area Science Bowl today, and will compete at the U.S. Department of Energy's National Science® Bowl in May.

Team members Mark Evans, Stephanie Paire, Joanne Lee, Malini Mahendra, Shahin Zarafshar and their coach, James Hill, will go to Washington, D.C., to compete in the national event on May 1-6 after defeating 16 other teams in the regional competition at El Camino High School, Sacramento.Mahendra was an alternate on the Mira Loma team that took fifth in national competition two years ago. In the event the Mira Loma team is unable to go to the national competition, a team from Davis High School, Davis, will go as the runner-up.

The National Science Bowl is an academic competition among teams of high school students. Since the program began in 1991, it has brought together more than 60,000 high school mathematics and science students - as well as their teachers - from across the country. The program is designed to encourage students and their teachers to achieve educational excellence in the sciences. Competing teams are quizzed on scientific topics in biology, chemistry, physics, astronomy, earth science, computer science, and mathematics.

The El Camino event was the second of three regional contests in the Western Area Power Administration's Sierra Nevada Region. Enterprise High School won the regional competition held January 25 in Redding. The final event will be February 22 in Modesto.

Major sponsors of this year's event include Western Area Power Administration, Sacramento Municipal Utility District, City of Roseville Electric Department and Lassen Municipal Utility District.