If you are a student interested in solving some speedy quizzes and competing against other students from different schools, the Brain Bowl Team at Seminole High School (SHS) may be for you! The Brain Bowl Club is run by Nicole DeRosa, a senior IB English and AP Capstone teacher at SHS. Brain Bowl is a Florida-based competition where teams compete against each other in various categories. Each team consists of up to six players, but only four are able to play at a time. A moderator then asks each team random questions from different subjects, mainly based on humanities, mathematics, natural science,and social sciences. The competition itself is a jeopardy-style competition, and contestants need to think fast and answer the question faster than the opposing teams. As the SHS Brain Bowl team continues to compete around the year, students share their experiences on the team.

For sophomore IB student Amal Papali, it is his second year in this club.  He shares how his experience in the club has been so far: “I think the Brain bowl is a club that deeply enables your critical thinking skills and allows you to exercise your various capabilities. I joined Brain Bowl in my freshman year, and it was really an eye opener for me. It showed me how much I did not know and how much I did know. From my experience, I was able to improve significantly in many areas of knowledge. I only joined the club initially because it sounded cool, but now I realize it is a great club for teens to really expand their knowledge. Students in quiz bowl are all intelligent and competing with them allows for you to expand your knowledge as well.”

As Papali mentions, Brain bowl is a great club that helps students gain intellect from not only just a specific subject, but multiple areas of knowledge. And because it is a quiz competition, students are able to build skills on quick thinking and focus which is always helpful as a highschool student. Shreyes Gagganapally, an IB junior, is a previous member of the Brain Bowl Team expresses that the Brain Bowl helps accumulate important skills necessary for almost any aspect of life.

Members of The Brain Bowl have Battle of the Brain competitions every Thursday starting January 19th, and goes on for 5 weeks. Students make teams of four and are permitted to collaborate with the team and buzz in before the other team does. There are points worth of every question the team is given. If they answer correctly, they get the points; if they answer incorrectly, then they lose as many points as it was worth. There are three rounds that are worth five points, ten points and fifteen points respectively, and teams of SHS rotate out. The Battle of the Brain competitions are held at Seminole State College (SSC), and district competitions are held at a learning center in Seminole County.  

From competing, teams are able to place and receive recognition as they go on to compete further. It builds up confidence in students and exercises the brain with new information that ought to come in handy in life. Currently, the club does not have a big number of members, consisting of mostly seniors, juniors and a few sophomores. Yet, those who are members now say they do not regret joining, expressing that they treasure the knowledge that they have learned from this club. It is a very intriguing club that can help students learn and retain more information about various subjects. 

Everyone who wants to participate in competitions, learn more about different areas of academia, and meet new people, is encouraged to join the club next year!