Support the Berkeley Science Bowl Invitational Tournament!

Who are we?

We are Berkeley Science Bowl (BSB) and our excited to launch our crowdfunding campaign for our Fall 2023 invitational tournament with a goal of raising $5000! The BSB Invitational Tournament is a STEM trivia competition for high school students resembling the format of the annually hosted National Science Bowl Tournament hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy. Our tournament is designed to prepare high school students with a passion for the sciences, especially from underrepresented communities, for competitions as well as providing an opportunity to explore UC Berkeley for its longstanding excellency in scientific fields. The competition will occur in early December over the course of a weekend; teams of 4 high school students compete against each other on campus in fast-paced head-to-head trivia to earn the title of champion. Additionally, we provide opportunities to learn more about science by hosting notable guest speakers from Berkeley's faculty and letting students tour the facilities on campus. Currently, we are the only invitational science bowl to take place on the West Coast and we are honored to provide this exciting opportunity for high schoolers to participate in.

More broadly, we are the American Chemical Society at Berkeley Student chapter in affiliation with the UC Berkeley College of Chemistry and the local California American Chemical Society Chapter. Our mission is to improve the academic and professional development of all undergraduates here at Berkeley while fostering a sense of community among our members and the UC Berkeley chemistry community. Beyond Berkeley Science Bowl, we provide academic & professional resources through info-sessions, workshops, panels & talks, networking events, and mentoring & advising to anyone with a passion in the sciences. By hosting BSB, we are better able to connect with Bay Area high schoolers to provide them with enrichment and fun oriented towards learning about the sciences.

Past Success

Our inaugural tournament was hosted last year and saw over 150 competitors with numerous teams from the Bay Area as well as teams from as far as Los Angeles, CA and Irvine, CA. Students competed for a full day and were provided lunch and snacks. The competition consisted of several rounds hosted around many of the campus facilities before we convened for a final single elimination tournament. All questions were designed from scratch by our team of volunteers (and included some fun questions about Berkeley's scientific accomplishments) and equipment was rented in order to provide our competitors an authentic experience. Beyond the competition, high school students were ecstatic to hear from a Nobel Laureate keynote speaker: Professor Randy Schekman and tour the Berkeley campus among our other welcoming events. Overall, it was a resounding success with many schools sending 3 or more teams to compete. As a result, we are projecting a significant increase in interest from high school students and hope to accommodate them by scaling up the competition for this year!

What will your money be put towards?

As mentioned earlier, last year's Science Bowl was extremely successful for an invitational tournament and we would love to be able increase the size and presence of the competition to better accommodate more teams! Since our tournament is staffed by volunteers, your donation will be targeted towards increasing the capacity of the event, increasing the number of additional events adjacent to the main competition, increasing outreach to more high schools, and providing support to a larger range of schools both locally and far away. A large portion of our budget will be allocated towards renting larger spaces across campus as well as providing more materials for our competitors to ensure the tournament environment is fair, safe, and enriching for all involved. We are expecting 250+ attendees this year from schools all across the West Coast eager to visit Berkeley. We would greatly appreciate any support you could provide in order to help build an amazing tournament for this year and for future years to come!

Stay connected or check out the other events we host!

We constantly update our Website, Facebook, and Instagram with our most recent and upcoming events even beyond Berkeley Science Bowl!

If you have any questions, contact us at acsberkeley@gmail.com or connect with us on through our LinkedIn!