National Science Bowl®

This is our high school National Science Bowl® page. Go to our middle school page

National Science Bowl Competition

After you’ve used all the practice questions from the U.S. Department of Energy each year, where do you get more questions? Here! It’s really hard to find practice questions in the “Energy” category anywhere else!

How does Science Bowl work?

Each tournament game is between two teams and has tossup questions (buzz when you know the answer) and bonus questions (one bonus question is read after each correct tossup answer, only to the team of four students who answered it). Questions may be “short answers” (1-2 words, like “Einstein”) or “multiple choice” (W, X, Y or Z, as those are the 4 choices, not ABCD). Games finish when the clock runs out or when all tossup questions have been read, whichever comes first. The subject of each question (biology, chemistry, physics, math, earth and space science, or energy), and whether it’s short answer or multiple choice, is announced before the question is read. Buzzing to interrupt the reader is allowed, but risky, as a wrong answer in that situation adds points to the other team and knocks your team out of that question.

More than 60 regions across the U.S. run a regional Science Bowl tournament each year. In each region, the winning team receives an all expenses paid trip (for up to five students) to Washington, D.C. for the national finals. In the finals, teams are divided into several groups and play a round robin tournament against the other high schools in their group. The top 2 teams in each group move to the final rounds, which go by double elimination (play until you lose twice) until one team is left that has fewer than two losses. A similar tournament is also held at the middle school level, with (slightly) easier questions.

Why buy your Science Bowl practice sets?

We are past head writers for Science Bowl. Each of the 15 tournament sets below contains 5 tournament games (or 125 tossups and 125 bonuses) of Science Bowl questions that are not in the free sets posted online by the Department of Energy. Thus, the schools/teams in your area can play real games before your regional Science Bowl tournament without worrying that the schools have already heard the questions. Participating teams can pay a part of the cost for a set and then receive a copy of the set after the tournament. You can even let your local underprivileged schools play for free!

Plus, it’s really hard to find practice questions in the “Energy” category anywhere else!

Plus, we have had several clients over the years finish in the top 10 at the National High School Science Bowl!

Are any of your tournament sets less than full price?

We have reduced the price of our four “old” Science Bowl tournaments from previous years (before the Energy category was created) by 50% , and four other tournaments with Energy questions by 25%, to make it even easier for new schools to get started!

We even accept Venmo for payment because of our PayPal affiliation.

Can we see some sample questions first?

Our free sample questions for National Science Bowl are now combined with other free samples into one middle school file and one high school file (specify which one you want).

HIGH SCHOOL SCIENCE BOWL 5-GAME TOURNAMENT SETS

(each game is 25 tossups & 25 bonuses)

With Energy category

Tournament #16 NEW FOR 2023-24! $99
Tournament #15 $99
Tournament #14 $99
Tournament #13 $99
Tournaments #9 – #12 (20 games)
Buy 3, get the 4th free!
$297
Tournaments #5 – #8 (20 games)
Buy 3, get the 4th free!
$297

Without Energy category

50% OFF! Tournaments #1 – #4 (20 games) $199

Go to our high school page

Let us know of a question problem with our problem form. Thank you!

We do not service buzzers, alas. Contact your buzzer manufacturer for help. Personally, we recommend Buzzer Systems.