Carlsbad students take on regional science bowl hosted by WIPP
- Adrian Hedden
- Mar 19, 2025
- 3 min read
Story, photos and video by Adrian Hedden
Canon Felt is an imposing presence. The Carlsbad High School junior stands about 6 feet tall, and looms over his classmates with an irreverent confidence and the intellect to back it up.
That’s probably why Felt, 17, wasn’t nervous as he prepared to take on some of the smartest students in southeast New Mexico in Saturday’s annual Science Bowl at Southeast New Mexico College in Carlsbad.
His team finished second in the competition, which was won by a team from the New Mexico Military Institute, but Felt was undaunted by the defeat, resolving to go to college “somewhere in New Mexico” and become a mechanical engineer after finishing high school.
Felt and his teammates took on nine other teams representing four high schools in the Science Bowl, a round robin-style tournament sponsored this year and also in 2024 by Salado Isolation Mining Contractors, the primary contractor at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, a nuclear waste repository near Carlsbad.
Participating schools in addition to Carlsbad High School and the military institute, were Hobbs High School and the Carlsbad Early College High School – a program within the local school district that allows students to gain college credits.
Carlsbad High School had two teams, while the Early College High School and Hobbs High each had three. The winning team was one of two from the New Mexico Military Institute. One of the Carlsbad Early College teams finished third.
“It’s fun. It makes me feel smart,” Felt said before the final round. “It’s a good thing for my college resume. It’s okay if we don’t win. It’s a fun thing.”
Carlsbad High School took third place in last year’s event, which was also won by the New Mexico Military Institute.
Maj. Beaune Vilaraza, the institute team’s coach, said the event helps give his students confidence and a chance to socialize. The institute functions as a boarding school, and Vilaraza said events like the Science Bowl are rare opportunities for students to make contact with the outside world.
“The takeaway from this competition is that they get to meet people. They are in a boarding school, so they need to get out and meet their peers,” he said. “That’s the most important thing they need to experience.”
Dr. Joy James-Foster, Salado’s education outreach lead who led the organization and planning of the event, said she structured this year’s and last year’s competitions based on what she learned during a November 2023 visit to the Savannah River Site in South Carolina to see how that federal nuclear facility handled its local science bowl events. She said she first heard of a Science Bowl being held at the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas.
James-Foster said she hopes to engage in the future with 23 other schools in the southeast New Mexico-West Texas region, including high schools in Eunice, Jal and Lovington in New Mexico, and schools in Texas cities such as Andrews, Midland, Culberson and Reeves.
“I want to make sure it grows,” she said. “I feel like it shows the kids that there’s more to academics that just going to school. You can test your knowledge in a competition. It gives them something to shoot for.”
The winning team is looking toward next month’s national competition at the Department of Energy’s National Science Bowl in Washington, D.C., and hoping to earn a shot at the World Championships held in Europe. James-Foster is hoping the rural desert region can show off its academic success on the global stage.
“We’ve got some amazing kids here,” she said. “Why not show them off and show the world that Carlsbad is here, and we’re amazing?”
Comments