One of Venice’s two Science Bowl teams placed 9th out of 42 other schools at the Regional Science Bowl on Saturday, Feb. 20th at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power in downtown Los Angeles.

“I told them to study more, expand their knowledge, and to practice playing strategies,” said the teacher in charge, Mr. Daren Kitajima.

The students who participated in the competition were Conner Bidinger, Jenny Chen, Colin Chun, Erik Kong, Mellia Kanani, Miranda Rector, Makysm Shchepetkin, and Aidan Yoo.

“I think being on the team is interesting because you are applying your knowledge,” said Chen. “I like the feeling of competing and being able to trust teammates. I had a lot of fun but was disappointed when we got eliminated.”

Both of Venice’s teams participated. Venice has two teams because each team can only have 4-5 students, and the team had nine students. The Science Bowl is a nationwide competition that tests students’ knowledge in all fields of science.

The first-place team was North Hollywood who will advance to the National Championship. Each region sends one team.

“I am very happy, they did great. Big improvements from last year and I am very proud of them. There are a lot of freshman on the team so it is very cool,” said Mr. Kitajima.

The questions that were asked during the competition were based on biology, chemistry, physics, astronomy, earth science, and energy.

In 1993 and 1994, Venice won the Science Bowl National Championship and one banner hangs in Mr. Kitajima’s classroom.