On May 2-3, 16 high schools and eight middle schools from across the country advanced in the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Science Bowl. Dos Pueblos High School was one of the “Sweet 16” that competed in Washington, D.C.

Representing Dos Pueblos at this prestigious event were seniors Sean Risser, Anjian Wu, Nicholas Su and Felix Li, and junior Ilan Goodman, the team captain.

“We made it out of pool play in second place, which put us in the top 16 of the nation’s 78 best teams,” Dos Pueblos team coach Chris Jones said. “We won $1,000 for the Dos Pueblos Science Department and moved on to the double elimination round. We lost our first match on the 25th question out of 25. We lost our second match next in a close game.

“The team showed incredible poise and kept their nerves in check by having fun. As the rounds moved on the questions became more and more difficult. By the end, with a B.S. in biology and 11 years of teaching under my belt, I was only able to answer 25 percent of the biology questions. Yet teams were answering greater than 40 percent of the questions right from biology, physics, math, chemistry, Earth science, general science and astronomy.

“Their dedication toward learning science and math is unparalleled. I couldn’t be more proud of our teams’ accomplishments.”

— Barbara Keyani is coordinator of administrative services and communications for the Santa Barbara School District.