Science Club competitiors are, from left, Donny Price, Wil Bason, Georgia Scalf, coach Christina Fleming, Caitlyn Romero, Stephen Smith and coach Jan Klinger.

The Tucumcari High School Science Club finished eight at recent Science Bowl in Albuquerque. Thirty-four teams from across New Mexico competed at the Math and Science Academy on Feb. as part of the New Mexico Science Bowl. The competition quizzes competitors in the areas of general science, earth science, math, astronomy, biology, chemistry and physics. The four-person, one alternate THS team consisted of Stephen Smith, the team captain, Donny Price, Caitlyn Romero, Wil Bason and Georgia Scalf. The club�s coaches, Christina Fleming and Jan Klinger accompanied the students to their highest placing ever since attending the event. �Earth science and chemistry were our strongest areas, Fleming said. �Donny and Stephen are longtime volunteers at the Mesalands Dinosaur Museum so they brought with them a strong background in Earth Science. The rest is due to their science education at Tucumcari schools, talent and a lot of independent studying." The team met at school and at the museum to practice for the competition. �What�s really rewarding is that our students did so well against bigger schools like Socorro and Santa Fe High,� said Fleming. �We even won a round against a Los Alamos High School team, something we haven�t done before, which made the students very proud." Eventually, the Math and Science Academy victory over THS caused their elimination but not before THS advanced to the final eight teams, Fleming said.