A Chief Kanim Middle School student, Vishnu Rathnam, is part of a winning team traveling to Washington, D.C. for national competition in April. Rathnam’s team, Science Infinity Club Team 1 of Bellevue, took first place in the Inland Northwest Regional Science Bowl Saturday, March 2, at Whitworth University in Spokane.

The winning team, includes captain Kartik Iyer (International Community School, Kirkland), Tejas Bharadwaj (Evergreen Middle School), Saransh Kacharia (Redmond Middle School), Rahul Nene (Redmond Middle School) and Coach Vidya Iyer. They will face more than 77 other regional winners in the national finals of the Department of Energy’s National Science Bowl.

Second place in the regional event went to Science Infinity Team 2, with another Chief Kanim student, Rahul Chaliparambil on board. Third place went to Lincoln Middle School Team 1 from Pullman.

This is the second year that a Science Infinity team won the competition. Last year’s winners went on to place third in the nation.

Twenty-six teams from middle schools across Washington and north Idaho competed for the regional title in a Jeopardy-style competition. The students answered  questions in science disciplines including astronomy, biology, chemistry, earth science, mathematics, physics, and energy.

The Inland Northwest Regional Science Bowl (http://prodigynw.org/science-bowl-inw/) hosted by Prodigy NW is in its ninth year.