ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Students from two Albuquerque Public Schools are headed to the 2025 Department of Energy National Science Bowl in Washington, D.C., with some serious bragging rights in hand.
La Cueva High School secured first place at this weekend’s regional competition sponsored by Sandia National Laboratories, and Eisenhower Middle School won their competition on March 1. With those wins, both teams earned spots at the national competition, which will be held April 24-28.
Eisenhower’s victory highlights the school’s perseverance as they defeated five-time reigning champion Los Alamos Middle School to secure their first ever regional science bowl win.
“It feels fantastic to finally have one of our teams win the New Mexico Science Bowl,” said Dan Riley, an electrical engineer at Sandia National Labs who has coached the Eisenhower team since 2019 when his oldest son Lucas was a sixth grader there. “We have been working to build that team over the last seven years; it’s just a culmination of a lot of effort paying off.”
“We have always fallen short to Albuquerque Academy and Los Alamos Middle School,” said fellow coach and Eisenhower teacher James Goodman who participated in the science bowl as a student at Eisenhower. “We had a great group of students this year who are so enthusiastic about science and math and our weekly practices really paid off.”
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At the high school level, La Cueva also defeated reigning champion Los Alamos High School. Riley’s son Lucas, now a senior, is a member of that team and is celebrating his first ever regional science bowl win.
The coaches say victories by two public schools highlight the incredible talent of students and teachers in the public school system. “While private schools often receive a lot of attention for academics, I have found a lot of very smart and talented kids within our public school system over the last seven years,” Riley said.
For Riley, it’s about more than just the win. “I volunteer in this capacity because I really want to see our children grow up with a love of science and math. This competition format really seems to kindle a desire to go out and do additional learning. It’s this love of science and math that is ultimately going to not only help our nation but our local laboratories in New Mexico.”
Sandia also supports regional science bowls annually in California. This year, Mission San Jose High School of Fremont won the California Regional Science Bowl High School competition on Jan. 25, and William Hopkins Middle School of Fremont secured the middle school title on March 8. Like the New Mexico winners, these teams will advance to the national competition in Washington, D.C.
This Sandia National Laboratories news article "APS students headed to National Science Bowl" was originally found on https://www.sandia.gov/news/
