NSB Finals 2021

National Science Bowl Pakistan – Inspiring the Love Of Science

The National Science Bowl Pakistan (NSB-P) Finals took place on February 6th and 7th, 2021. In light of the pandemic the event was hosted fully virtually. NSB-P is a science knowledge competition modelled on the successful quiz bowl format of the US National Science Bowl.

This year’s NSB-P Finals winning team is Karachi Grammar School. Team members were: Ashir Sharjeel (Team Captain), Illiyun Banani, Kabir Jitender, Sadia Billoo, and Subhash Wadhwani with Muhammad Kashan Tufail acting as Team supervisor.

The Runners Up of NSB-P Finals are Nixor College, with St. Patricks High School and The Lyceum School being the Semi-Finalists.

The event was co-hosted by the Centre for Economic Research in Pakistan (CERP), Society for Better Educational Engagement at the Lahore University of Management Sciences (BEE@LUMS), and the Pakistan Innovation Foundation (PIF) and supported by students from the Lexington High School (LHS) MA (USA) Science bowl team.

The Finals were the culmination of a series of regional events where the top teams from Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad competed over the two-day event. These 11 teams, (with 5 members each) were : Aitchison College; Beaconhouse Defence Campus, Lahore; Beaconhouse Educational Complex G-15, Islamabad; EMS High school; Karachi Grammar School; Lahore Grammar School 1A1; Maktab; Nixor College; St. Patrick’s High School; Team Alum; and The Lyceum School.

Dr. Athar Osama, of PIF, opened the event by highlighting NSB-P’s aim of inspiring the love of science in students. He emphasised how “this competition can scale up with schools holding their local competitions and participants from these nationals becoming moderators for future events.”

After an intense first day of round-robin tournaments, where students were quizzed on their knowledge of physics, chemistry, biology, earth science, and mathematics, four teams qualified for the semi-finals: Karachi Grammar School; Nixor College; St. Patrick’s High School; and The Lyceum School- a complete Karachi sweep! Mr. Moeed Asad (BEE@LUMS), congratulated the qualifying teams and thanked all the student volunteers for hosting a challenging but exciting first tournament day.

On the second day of the tournament, Maroof A. Syed of CERP opened the semi-finals by thanking all partners and noting that “It took many to bring about the National Science Bowl. We hope to see it happening for many more years to come,”. The semi-final and finals were moderated by Amaan Khwaja (LHS); After intense head-on-head and often nail-biting semi-finals, Karachi Grammar School beat out Nixor College in the final and were declared the overall winner.

The goal of NSB-P is to encourage students to excel in mathematics and science and to pursue careers in these fields. While there is an impressive “maker” movement in science, NSB-P hopes to complement this by introducing a more traditional memory-based competition that builds upon a rich Pakistani tradition of such competitions like “Bait-Baazi”. Students are asked questions in Biology, Chemistry, Earth & Space, Mathematics and Physics that both test their knowledge base and quick analytical abilities.

The National Science Bowl had a team of volunteers who have helped set the event up from its very start and deserve a special mention: Athar Osama (CEO, PIF), Dr. Asim I. Khwaja (Founding Board Member, CERP), Maroof A. Syed (CEO, CERP), Abdul Moeed Asad (President BEE@, LUMS),  Rehmat Ullah (a Team Lead from LUMS), and Lexington High School USA Science Bowl team members who helped moderate the games: Amaan Khwaja, Daniel Xiang, Daniel Zhou, and Gideon Tzafriri. Here we would like to thank the three hosts of NSP’s regionals as well: Cedar College Karachi, Roots Millennium Islamabad, and Beaconhouse Newlands Lahore.

Score Sheet

Sunday, February 7th, 2021

Saturday, February 6th, 2021