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Annual science competition held in the United States of America

The National Science Bowl (NSB) is a high school and middle school science knowledge competition, using a quiz bowl format, held in the United States. A buzzer system similar to those seen on popular television game shows is used to signal an answer. The competition has been organized and sponsored by the United States Department of Energy since its inception in 1991.

Questions are asked in the categories of Biology, Chemistry, Earth and Space Science, Energy (dealing with DOE research), Mathematics, and Physics. Several categories have been added, dropped, or merged throughout the years. Computer Science was dropped from the list in late 2002. Current Events was in the 2005 competition, but did not make a return. General Science was dropped and Astronomy was merged with Earth Science to create Earth and Space Science in 2011.

The winning team of each regional Science Bowl competition is invited to participate in the National Science Bowl finals in Washington, D. C., with all expenses paid. As of 2018, there were 65 high school regionals and 48 middle school regionals. These figures include the two "super regional" sites that are permitted to send two teams to the national competition. The two super regionals are the Kansas/Missouri Regional High School Science Bowl and the Connecticut/Northeast Regional High School Science Bowl (The Northeast Regional includes Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, and parts of New York). Typically, any school that meets the eligibility requirements of the National Science Bowl is permitted to register for its regional competition according to its geographic location. No school may compete in multiple regionals. In addition, most regional competitions permit schools to register up to three teams. Since 2017, club teams are no longer able to compete.

This section first lists the rules for in person competitions, and finishes with the rules for virtual competitions. The national competition follows all the rules for the in person competitions. Most in person regional competitions use the same rules, but they may request to use different rules. Virtual regional competitions must use the rules set for virtual competitions.

A team consists of 4 or 5 students from a single school. Only 4 students play at any one time, while the 5th is designated as the alternate. Substitutions and switching captains may occur at halftime and between rounds. Two teams compete against each other in each match. Each team member is given a number A1, A Captain, A2, A3, B1, B Captain, B2, B3, according to the position each student sits in. In regional competitions, each round consists of 23 questions (that is, 23 toss ups and 23 corresponding bonuses). At the National Finals, each round consists of 25 questions. The match is over when all the toss up questions have been read (and any bonuses related to correctly answered toss ups), or after two halves have elapsed, whichever occurs first. The team with the most points at this time is the winner. At the regional level, all matches consist of two 8 minute halves, separated by a 2 minute break. At the national level for middle schools, all matches consist of two 10 minute halves. For high schools, all round robin and some double elimination matches consist of two 10 minute halves, with the final rounds consisting of two 12 minute halves to accommodate the longer visual bonus questions. A toss up/bonus cycle that is begun before time expires in a half will be finished under the usual rules before the half ends. A question officially begins once its subject area is completely read.

Every match begins with a toss up question. The moderator announces the subject of the question (see "Subject Areas" above), as well as its type (Multiple Choice or Short Answer). Once the moderator completes the reading of the question, students have 5 seconds to buzz in and give an answer. Students may buzz in at any time after the category has been read—there is no need to wait for the moderator to finish. However, there is a penalty for interrupting the moderator and giving an incorrect answer. After buzzing in, a student must first wait for an official to verbally recognize them by saying their team name and number (otherwise it is considered a blurt; see Penalties for more info), and then give their response within a natural pause (up to 2 seconds); otherwise it is considered a stall and ruled incorrect. If a student buzzes in and answers incorrectly, that student's team may not buzz in again on that question, and the opposing team (if still eligible to answer) gets another 5 seconds to buzz in. Quiet nonverbal communication (e. g. in writing or by hand signals) among team members is allowed on toss ups, but audible communication or mouthing words is not permitted and will disqualify the team from answering the toss up. An answer given by a student is ruled correct or incorrect by the moderator. On short answer questions, if the answer given differs from the official one, the moderator uses his or her judgment to make a ruling (which is subject to a challenge by the competitors). On multiple choice questions, the answer given by the student is only correct if it matches the official answer exactly. However, when the choices are mathematical expressions that would be conventionally written in symbols, common alternate expressions of the answer shall be accepted. For example, “square root of 2” and “square root 2” would both be accepted. Alternatively, the student may give the letter choice that corresponds to their answer. Although A, B, C, and D were once used as answer choice letters, W, X, Y, and Z are now favored due to a lower chance of confusion.

If a student answers a toss up question correctly, that student's team receives a bonus question. The bonus question is always in the same category as the corresponding toss up question, though it may not always relate to the toss up question. Since only one team has the opportunity to answer the bonus question, there is no need to buzz in to answer it. After the moderator finishes reading the question, the team has 20 seconds to answer. The timekeeper will give a 5 second warning when 5 seconds remain. Conferring between team members is permitted, but the team captain must give the team's final answer. Visual bonuses were introduced in 2003. They are only included in the final elimination rounds. The team has 30 seconds to answer a question with the aid of a visual displayed on a monitor (for the final matches) or on a distributed worksheet (for earlier elimination matches). The same rules apply to the judging of responses to bonus questions as apply to responses to toss up questions. Once the team's answer has been ruled right or wrong, the moderator proceeds to the next toss up question. If neither team answers the toss up question correctly, the bonus question is not read, and the moderator proceeds to the next toss up question.

Correct responses to toss up questions are worth 4 points each. If a student buzzes in on a toss up question before the moderator has completely read the question (i. e., interrupts the moderator) and responds incorrectly, 4 points are awarded to the opposing team, and the question is re read in its entirety so that the opposing team has an opportunity to buzz in. Should the opposing team interrupt during the rereading of the question and answer incorrectly, it is also subject to the 4 point penalty. A correct response on a bonus question earns 10 points, making the total possible score on a single question 18 points (4 for a correct answer, 4 penalty points, and 10 for the bonus), and a perfect score 450 points. Against a team which never buzzes in (often the better approximation), the maximum (perfect) score is 350 points. This is assuming that only the regular 25 questions have been answered. Earning more than 200 points in one game is very impressive and earning more than 300 points is extremely rare.

Challenges must be made before the moderator begins reading the next question, or 3 seconds after the last question of the half or game. Only the 4 actively competing members may challenge. The fifth team member, coach, and others associated with a team may not become involved in challenges or their discussion. However, beginning in 2020, anyone in the competition room can make the officials aware of scoring or clock management errors, these are known as corrections rather than challenges. Challenges may be made either to scientific content or the administration of rules. They may not be made to judgment calls by the officials, such as whether a buzz was an interrupt, whether 20 seconds have passed before beginning to answer a bonus, or whether a stall or blurt has happened. Challenges to scientific content is limited to 2 unsuccessful challenges per round. Successful challenges do not count against this limit. Each team has unlimited challenges to administration of rules.

For the 2024 competition, regional competitions have the option of choosing a virtual format. Additionally, the DOE will host 4 virtual nationwide regionals for schools meeting certain criteria. Teams do not play head to head matches in the virtual competition. Instead, each team is placed in their own Zoom room and competing against all the other teams in the tournament. Each competition begins with two or three preliminary rounds, in which the teams' scores in the rounds are added up, and the teams with the highest totals advance to the elimination rounds. Each regional competition can choose whether to advance 8, 16, 24, or 32 teams to the elimination rounds. During the elimination rounds, only the score for the current round is used to determine the teams advancing to the next round—the scores from the previous rounds are irrelevant. The number of teams left after each elimination round will go in the following order: 24, 16, 8, 4, 2, and finally 1, beginning with the appropriate number based on how many teams initially advanced from the preliminaries. During each round, the teams are read the same series of 18 toss up/bonus cycles. There is no game clock. Teams have 7 seconds after the moderator finishes reading for a student to raise their hand and give an answer on a toss up, and if answered correctly, have 22 seconds after the moderator finishes reading for a student to raise their hand and give an answer on the bonus. If the team misses the toss up, the bonus is not read. Toss ups and bonuses may be answered by any of the 4 or 5 team members. Communication of any kind (verbal, via the Zoom chat, or nonverbal) is allowed on both toss ups and bonuses. There are no penalties for interrupting (but also no reason to interrupt since all the toss ups would be read in their entirety) or blurting (although the player will be verbally recognized after raising their hand). The rest of the rules, including the point values for toss ups and bonuses, are the same as the in person competitions.

This section is concerned with the format of the national competition only. As is the case with competition rules, the competition format varies greatly among the different regional competitions. Regionals typically use round robin, single elimination, double elimination, or any combination of these formats. The national competition always consists of two stages: round robin and double elimination.

All competing teams are randomly arranged (each team captain randomly picks a division and position on the first day of the National Finals) into eight round robin groups of eight or nine teams each for high school and six teams each for middle school. Every team plays every other team in its group once, receiving 2 points for a win, 1 point for a tie, or 0 points for a loss. If a team's opponent has not arrived, that team can practice instead. The rules still apply, though any win or loss is not counted. In previous years, the top two teams from each group advanced to the double elimination stage. Starting in 2020, four teams from each group will advance.

Starting in 2020, 32 teams advance to the double elimination stage. Prior to 2020, approximately 16 teams advanced from the round robin (depending on the number of round robin groups). In 2006, the teams were seeded into a single elimination tournament based on their preliminary round robin results. In previous years, a team's position in the double elimination tournament was determined by random draw; teams were not seeded in any way. The competition then proceeded (in 2006) like a typical single elimination tournament. Seeding continued in the 2007 tournament: teams that won their pool were paired against teams that placed second in theirs. Unlike in the round robin, a match in double elimination cannot be tied. If a match is tied at the end of regulation, overtime periods of five toss ups each are played until the tie is broken.

The top two high school teams receive trips to one of the National Parks, all expenses paid. The top three middle and high school teams receive a trophy, individual medals, and photographs with officials of the Department of Energy. The top 16 middle and high schools earn a check for their school's science departments. As of 2024, the top 16 schools receive $1,000 and the top 2 schools receive $5,000. Each team with the best Division Team Challenge result in their division earns a $500 check for their school's science department.

For the middle school teams, the DOE also sponsored a car competition challenging competitors to construct a car capable of attaining high speeds. They are powered through alternative energy sources such as hydrogen fuel cells and solar panels. The winners of the car competition were awarded with $500 for their school.