“Chlorine!” a student answers after quickly buzzing in for toss-up question No. 1, which asked what chemical element Cl represents. “Correct!” came the reply.

Last Sunday afternoon on the Microsoft campus, more than 200 middle school students competed to see who knew the most about science.The event was the 2012 Seattle Regional Contests, where local Indian American students competed in spelling, vocabulary, public speaking, geography, math and the main event, science.

It was sponsored by the North South Foundation (NSF).The NSF is a volunteer driven nonprofit for Indian American children in fourth to eighth grade that began in 1989. Its mission is to not only motivate students in the United States to further their education, but also to raise funds for needy students in India who cannot afford to go to school.

Sivaprasad Padisetty, who works for Microsoft, started volunteer-coaching his eighth-grade son and the rest of the science-bowl students about seven months ago. Although his son will be too old to compete after this year, he said he wants to continue being a part of the foundation.

“I know every single person who is coming here and performing,” Padisetty said. “Just to be connected with the kids and see them grow is what inspires me.”

The science bowl was added to the contests last year and has already seen vast success. Padisetty recently took three teams of five students each to Spokane to compete regionally against about 40 teams from Washington and Idaho where they placed first, second and fifth respectively.

The first place team is now qualified to compete nationally in Washington, D.C., where President Barack Obama will be the keynote speaker.

Aditya Murali, 13-year-old student at Redmond Junior High, is a member of the winning team and said his feelings about science have gradually changed throughout the months.

“I like science bowl because when we started doing written tests I thought that I was really bad at science and even in school I didn’t do very well,” he said. “But after this … I took initiative and time to actually study and now I really enjoy (it).”

Padisetty said his favorite part about coaching is seeing how much the kids learn.

“In the last six or seven months I started to coach, every parent comes to me (saying) ‘Wow, I didn’t even know this kind of fight existed in my kid,’” he said.

Murali Golalan, Aditya’s father, said his son has always been exceptional at math and he was looking for a “launching pad to get him into science.”

“I just want him to be good in the general academic things,” he said, while noting that he wants his son “to choose the profession he wants to do. Based on what I see, he has some interest in being a doctor. I don’t know if that’s what he will do. Things could change.”

Aditya, who also participated in the vocabulary contest among others, said the competitions help him in other aspects of his schooling, such as using better language in his essays; however, the science bowl has a unique team element.

“Sometimes people get offended because you say you did better than them and sometimes there are arguments, but as a team … you either win as a team or lose as a team,” he said.

Suvansh Sanjeev, also a member of the winning team, only knew one of his teammates when he started because they are neighbors, but has gotten to know the other students really well.

“With all these team practices and everything we all got to become pretty close friends,” he said.

The boys will head to Washington, D.C., with their coach on Thursday for five days of competition in the U.S. Department of Energy National Science Bowl. These events are changing the way the young people think about science.

“At first I thought science was really hard and boring, but then while we kept doing these series of test and kept studying, I got better and better,” said team member Tejas Bharadwaj, who attends Evergreen Junior High School in Redmond. “I really like it now and it’s just really fun. Science bowl is really interactive and it helps you learn in a better way.”

Erica Thompson is a student in the University of Washington Department of Communication News Laboratory.