By Anna Etra

Two teams competed at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power Science Bowl in downtown Los Angeles on Feb. 27.  The competition consisted of questions ranging from chemistry, to math, to earth science, to physics, team captain Ilica Mahajan ’10 said.

Math teacher Kevin Weis was the coach of the “A” team and math teacher Jacob Hazard was the coach of the “B” team.

The competition was divided into two parts.

In the morning, the teams competed in a round robin competition. The top teams from that round continued to the afternoon double elimination buzzer round.

There is also a hands-on competition for teams that do not qualify for the second buzzer round but is also offered when there is not enough room for a school to have multiple teams in the main competition.

This is the first year that both of the Harvard-Westlake teams were able to participate in the buzzer competition.

The A team, consisting of Mahajan, Colin Campbell ’12, Max Simchowitz ’10, Jeffrey Sperling ’11 and Sajjan Sri-Kumar ’12, won fourth place, bringing home $200 for each individual and $1,250 for the school.
Additionally, the B team.

Ishan Bose-Pyne ’12, Ian Cinnamon ’10, Justin Ho ’12, Richard Liu ’10 and Susan Wang ’12, competed in the hands-on competition, which involved solving logic puzzles. They won fourth place, with each team member winning $100 and roughly $1,000 total for the school.

The students decided who should be on what team.

The decisions were based on performances at practices, which have been going on all year.

It is currently unclear where the money earned for the school will go. 

“I’m hoping that the money will be put into the Harvard-Westlake STEM fund and be used to increase student awareness of, and participation in, Science, Technology, Engineering and Math opportunities,” Weis said.