Back in the 1960's there was a wildly popular television show, the G.E. College Bowl. For spectators, watching academic gladiators was pretty entertaining.
The idea was pretty simple. Two four-member teams representing various colleges and universities from around the country answered questions tossed out by a moderator. Think Jeopardy, only by team, rather than an individual.
Now you can watch some of your neighbors. This Saturday, there's a similar event, only it's for high school kids, and it's right next door in Palo Alto. There will be a team from and representing.
The Bay Area Regional Science Bowl will be held Saturday at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory's Panofsky Auditorium.
Last year's winner was Palo Alto High, beating out Homestead High School and Harker High School.
SLAC Media Manager Andy Freeberg tells us the Science Bowl is an event that has never really been pitched to spectators.
Says Freeberg, "It turns out that it actually is open to the public, and (it) sounds like the last few rounds can be pretty exciting but we’ve never really advertised it to the public in the past; mostly it’s the students and their parents."
Freeberg says each round lasts about 30 minutes, 20 minutes plus a 10 minute buffer. He says the real tournament starts at 1:00 p.m. and runs until it ends. The public can come any time between 1:00-3:00 p.m. to Panofsky Auditorium, which has plenty of seats and is right next to the visitor center. The final round will likely occur sometime around 3:00 p.m.
Freeberg says that when visitors arrive, they should notify security at the front gate that they’re at SLAC for the Science Bowl, show photo ID and park in any of the lots near the Visitor Center and Panofsky Auditorium.
Visitors should avoid interrupting rounds once they’ve begun.
Anyone with questions can e-mail communications@slac.stanford.edu.
Here's the rundown of schools competing this year:
- American High School (Team 1), Fremont
- Andrew Hill High School (Team 1), San Jose
- Bellarmine College (Team 1) Preparatory, San Jose
- Crystal Springs Uplands (Team 1) School, Hillsborough
- EPGY High School (Team 1), Stanford
- Gunderson High School (Team 1), San Jose
- The Harker School (Team 1), San Jose
- The Harker School (Team 2), San Jose
- Hillsdale High School (Team 1), San Mateo
- Homestead High School (Team 1), Cupertino
- Los Gatos High School (Team 1), Los Gatos
- Lynbrook High School (Team 1), San Jose
- Lynbrook High School (Team 2), San Jose
- Mills High School (Team 1), Millbrae
- Milpitas High School (Team 1), Milpitas
- Monta Vista High School (Team 1), Cupertino
- Monta Vista High School (Team 2), Cupertino
- Palo Alto Senior High School (Team 1), Palo Alto
- Piedmont Hills High School (Team 1), San Jose
- Santa Teresa High School (Team 1), San Jose
- Saratoga High School (Team 1), Saratoga
- Saratoga High School (Team 2), Saratoga
- (Team 1), Mountain View
- Wilcox High School (Team 1), Santa Clara
And for those of you curious about G.E. College Bowl, we found a 1966 clip of the show on YouTube; it's attached to this story. You'll see see four young ladies from Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia match wits with four men from Princeton.
