Concordia Nebraska hosts 2025 middle and high school Nebraska Science Bowl events

Concordia Nebraska recently hosted the Nebraska Science Bowl on February 8 for middle school students and February 22 for high school students. The competition is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy and is a qualifying event for the National Science Bowl, which will take place in Washington, D.C. on April 24-28, 2025. This is the fourth year that Concordia has hosted the state-level competition.  

This year’s middle and high school events brought students from towns like Holdrege, Omaha, Lincoln, Wayne and more to Concordia’s campus. The team that won each competition received an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, D.C. to compete at the national competition against students from across the country.  

“Scientists have been blessed by God with the ability to do science,” said Dr. Robert Hermann, Professor of Physics at Concordia Nebraska and director of the Nebraska Science Bowl. “This event gives our students a chance to see that a life of science is also one of thankfulness to God and service to His people.”  

It’s great to see how much excitement there is in an academic competition. The students work hard to master the material and there is a lot of jubilation when they earn points by answering questions correctly.

This year, Elkhorn Valley View Middle School’s team from Elkhorn, Nebraska, won the middle school competition, and Lincoln East team 1 from Lincoln, Nebraska, won the high school competition, qualifying both teams for awards and a trip to the nation’s capital. Seward’s hometown middle school team, from St. John Lutheran School, came in second in the competition.  

“It’s great to see how much excitement there is in an academic competition,” said Dr. Brent Royuk, Professor of Physics at Concordia Nebraska. “The students work hard to master the material and there is a lot of jubilation when they earn points by answering questions correctly.”  

Each team, at both the middle and high school levels, consisted of four competitors, optional alternates and one or two coaches. Teams won points by correctly answering four-point "toss-up" questions about topics like math, chemistry, physics and earth science or ten-point “bonus” questions if they answered the toss-ups correctly.  

Round-robin morning competitions take place to seed afternoon double-elimination rounds. Each round allows a team to go head-to-head against a single other four-member team, scoring points as they answer questions correctly.  

The Science Bowl runs with the help of volunteers from the Concordia community and the surrounding community. Roles like “timekeeper,” “scorekeeper” and “moderator” are filled by faculty, staff, students and other volunteers.  

“We couldn’t even consider hosting the Science Bowl without the help of our students,” Hermann said. “[They] make the Science Bowl a real community event where we all get to work side by side.”  

The Nebraska Science Bowl is a volunteer-run event that Concordia looks forward to hosting each year. The next competition will take place in February 2026.  

Interested in volunteering at the Nebraska Science Bowl? Learn more here.