National Ocean Sciences Bowl

The National Ocean Sciences Bowl (NOSB), often referred to as "Ocean Science Bowl" or "Ocean Bowl," is a quizbowl-like competition run by the Consortium for Ocean Leadership.

Game Format

The NOSB format is largely identical to that of Science Bowl, though there are several notable exceptions.

• Each round consists of two 6-minute halves, along with two written test questions ("Team Challenge Questions") administered prior to the two buzzer halves. However, some regionals may administer the test questions between the two halves.
• All tossups are multiple-choice, and all bonuses are short-answer.
• A correctly answered tossup is worth 4 points, an incorrectly interrupt tossup (neg) is worth -4 points, and a correctly answered bonus is worth 6 points.
• Unlike in Science Bowl, multiple-choice answers do not need to exactly match the wording of the answer choice; adding an article (e.g. "The Pacific Ocean" for "Pacific Ocean") is acceptable, though other modifications (e.g. "Octopuses" for "Octopus") are still counted as wrong.
• Verbal recognition is required on tossups; "blurting" will disqualify one's team from answering the question, though there is no point penalty (unlike Science Bowl).
• Math computation appears to be absent outside of written test questions.

Full competition rules can be found here.

Question Topics

NOSB questions tend to be themed around—you guessed it—the oceans. Topics include:

• marine biology
• physical oceanography
• seawater chemistry
• technology/instruments used to study the oceans
• ocean geography/bathymetry
• marine law (both U.S. and international)
• ocean history (usually explorers)
• (rarely) ocean-themed literature

Competition Results

Year	Champion	Second	Third	Fourth
2020*	Ladue	Santa Monica	Dougherty Valley	Centerville
2019	Albany	Santa Monica	Ladue	Centerville
2018	Montgomery Blair	Santa Monica	Marshfield	Albany
2017	Santa Monica	Marshfield	NCSSM	Centerville
2016	Albany	Marshfield	Santa Monica	Liberty Common
2015	Boise	Dexter	Marshfield	Mission San Jose
2014	Boise	Arcadia	Juneau-Douglas	Bishop Sullivan Catholic
2013	Arcadia	Lexington (MA)	Juneau-Douglas	Neah-Kah-Nie
2012	Marshfield	Raleigh Charter	Eastside (NJ)	Lexington (MA)
2011	Marshfield	Lexington (MA)	Santa Monica	Mt. Sinai
2010	Marshfield	Marine Academy of Sci. and Tech	Santa Monica	Mission San Jose	La Jolla

* The 2020 competition was held online in a modified format.