Now entering its 13th year, NOSB will be incorporating a new technology component to the program to create a more sustainable competition. The Electronic Ocean Sciences Bowl software (eOSB) is a technology upgrade that will impact every student, coach, volunteer, and competition administrator. The eOSB software, run from a computer, will replace the binders that moderators and science judges use in each competition room. By harnessing this new technology to build a sustainable program, the NOSB will be pioneering a new era of academic competitions.

Environmental Impact: The size of the NOSB competition demands a large amount of resources each year. There are currently 25 sites that host regional competitions throughout the country. At each competition there are roughly eight competition rooms and in each room, the competition officials have two identical notebooks containing 400 pages of questions. Developing the question books demand at least two reams of paper used per competition room; or rather a total of 500 reams of paper across the entire country. Additionally, each competition site will consume two toner cartridges to print the questions. Historically, the entire competition has depended on developing these expensive and resource consuming notebooks. It is now apparent that the competition needs to reduce its environmental footprint and find a more sustainable model for the future. The eOSB software program allows each site to use laptops to read the questions instead of taking the time and resources to create over 16 binders at each regional location.

Training and practice will be provided to moderators in advance of the competition. Team Challenge Questions will still be printed and handed out to each team. We are excited about this effort to align NOSB’s mission with the need to reduce our impact on the planet and its oceans!