Venice High Wins National Science Competition

It was an eclectic team from Venice High School, including a student who had flunked out for a time, that clinched the National Science Bowl championship Monday.

In doing so, they brought the coveted academic title to Los Angeles for the second year in a row. Van Nuys High School won the national championship last year.

The five team members, who call themselves the “cool nerds,” were amazed by their win in the Washington, D.C., competition. They were still cramming late into the night before the competition--reviewing last-minute details of computer science, biology, physics, earth science, chemistry, astronomy, mathematics and new technology.

“We really didn’t expect to win,” said Le Hoang, a senior who was born in China where her family moved after the Vietnam War. “We knew we were good, but we didn’t think we were this good.”

She lives near Chinatown, commuting to the Westside school to attend its language and foreign relations magnet program.

Another team member, Chris Mayor, is a senior who at one point flunked out of school and was ready to take his high school equivalency degree but then re-enrolled.

Despite the team’s apprehensions, none of the science bowl questions caught members off guard, said David Dickinson, a junior and the team captain. The five students had been studying together since last summer and were able to cover every subject area in at least some detail, Dickinson said.

“We went over it again and again and again,” he said.

News of the team’s win spread like a “hot wind” through Venice High School, said Principal Bud Jacobs. Although Venice may not be widely known for its academics, he said, the school’s national showing in the science bowl proves that the Westside high school should not be discounted.

“We’ve always had talent at this school, it just may not always get recognized,” Jacobs said.

Venice was one of eight California teams among 54 entries from 39 states. After nearly two days of competition, the science bowl came down to a head-to-head battle between Venice High and San Francisco’s Lowell High School, known for its top-level academics.

The U.S. Department of Energy has sponsored the Science Bowl for the past six years, and this is the third time a California team has won the title. This year, four California teams placed in the top 12, among them Arcadia High School.

Dickinson credits the team’s strategic approach to pushing the buzzer to indicate it had the answer. Instead of waiting to hear the entire question, team members would pounce on the buzzer when they had an inkling of the response.

But if they came up with the wrong answer--and the team rarely did--they could have lost up to 18 points at a time.

Even Energy Secretary Hazel O’Leary was impressed by what she called the team’s “risky” strategy.

“They really took advantage of that bell,” O’Leary said in an interview. “They were able to assess how bright they thought they were.”

With the championship, the team wins its choice of four science-related trips, and Venice has chosen to spend a week at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

For now, there is no time for the team of Westside whiz kids to revel in their national victory. They return to school today to start a week-long stretch of Advanced Placement exams in various academic disciplines.

No sweat, said team member Noah Bray-Ali.

“It comes with the territory--you know, being a ‘cool nerd,’ ” he said.