By Tim Leeds
Five Havre High School students will travel to Billings to compete in the state Science Bowl on Feb. 12.
The winners of the state bowl will go to Washington, D.C. to compete on the national level on May 5-8.
The students representing Havre High at the bowl are: Thomas Billingsley, son of Owen and Margaret Billingsley; Brian Ehlert, son of Mark and Pam Ehlert; Thea Maristuen, daughter of Keith and Chris Maristuen; and Jayson Nissen, son of Charles Nissen and Amy Booker. James Howland, son of Jay and Shannon Howland, is an alternate for the team.
The team is coached by Carol Pleninger, chemistry teacher at the high school, and Dan Koffler, physics teacher at the high school.
Pleninger said the bowl is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy. She said the Department of Energy will also fund the trip for the state winners to compete at the national bowl in May.
21 schools from across the state will compete at the bowl in Billings, Pleninger said. She said the competition will be double elimination, with a round-robin event in the morning to determine which teams will participate in the afternoon's championship rounds.
Pleninger said the competition will consist of questions from several subject areas, including chemistry, physics, biology, computer science, astronomy, math and general science. The first student to buzz in on a question must answer the question with no help from his or her team, she said. If the correct answer is given, the team is asked a bonus question, which the opposing teams may not buzz in on. The entire team may confer on the bonus question, which is worth more points than the open questions, Pleninger said.
Pleninger said this is her first year to take a Havre team to the bowl, but Koffler went to last year's bowl. She said Havre has sent a team for
