Brain Bowl is an academic competition in which Florida

Florida

Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

 Community College teams are pitted against one another. Teams consist of up to six players, only four of whom play at any given time. A moderator reads questions from four subject areas that includes humanities

Humanities

The humanities are academic disciplines that study the human condition, using methods that are primarily analytical, critical, or speculative, as distinguished from the mainly empirical approaches of the natural sciences....

, mathematics

Mathematics

Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...

, natural science

Natural science

The natural sciences are branches of science that seek to elucidate the rules that govern the natural world by using empirical and scientific methods...

 and social sciences

Social sciences

Social science is the field of study concerned with society. "Social science" is commonly used as an umbrella term to refer to a plurality of fields outside of the natural sciences usually exclusive of the administrative or managerial sciences...

. Each area is equally represented. A buzzer system is used to identify the player who buzzes in first. Ten points are awarded for correctly answering the tossup question. The team winning the tossup is eligible to win up to 20 points for correctly answering the followup bonus questions. After 44 questions, the team that has accumulated the most points wins the game.

Brain Bowl varies from Quiz Bowl and other forms in that only academic questions are used.

Florida Brain Bowl Purpose

The purpose of Brain Bowl competition is to recognize outstanding student

Student

A student is a learner, or someone who attends an educational institution. In some nations, the English term is reserved for those who attend university, while a schoolchild under the age of eighteen is called a pupil in English...

 academic achievement, to help focus community interest on academic excellence in Florida community colleges, and to help foster relations among faculty and students as they work together on this joint project.

History and Scholarships

Florida Brain Bowl was created in the fall of 1981 and until 1991 was a joint project of the Florida State Department of Education and the Florida Community College Activities Association. Since 1991, the FCCAA has been the sole sponsor of the Brain Bowl.

After initially gaining the approval and support of the Florida Community College Council of Presidents, the fall of 1981 was spent developing rules and organizing regional competitions. The cash awards for the initial year came from a combination of funds from the legislative appropriation that established the Program to Recognize Initiative and Distinction in Education (PRIDE) and more than $12,000 that the founders of the Brain Bowl competition were able to raise from private sources.

Since its inception in 1981, the Florida Community Colleges Brain Bowl competition has involved more than 1,000 students in regional and state competitions. During that time, the Florida Department of Education has awarded more than $80,000 to community college students who have competed in these tournaments. Private colleges and universities, as well as state supported universities, have made available almost $1 million worth of scholarship opportunities. Each year the host school records the Championship match for future broadcast to the television viewers in the State of Florida.

Tournament History

Brain Bowl Tournament winners are:

1982: Florida Junior College at Jacksonville

1983: Florida Junior College at Jacksonville

1984: St. Petersburg Junior College

1985: Miami Dade Community College -South Campus

1986: Seminole Community College

1987: Miami Dade Community College -South Campus

1988: Florida Community College at Jacksonville

1989: Broward Community College

1990: Broward Community College

1991: Broward Community College

1992: Broward Community College

1993: Broward Community College

1994: Valencia Community College

1995: Valencia Community College

1996: Central Florida Community College

1997: Broward Community College

1998: Broward Community College

1999: Valencia Community College

2000: Tallahassee Community College

2001: Valencia Community College

2002: Pensacola Junior College

2003: Valencia Community College

2004: Okaloosa-Walton College

2005: Okaloosa-Walton College

2006: Broward Community College

2007: Okaloosa-Walton College

2008: Chipola College

2009: Chipola College

2010: Chipola College

2011: Chipola College

Florida Community College Activities Association

Brain Bowl website

Brain Bowl Coaches list

Panhandle Region Teams

Chipola College

Gulf Coast Community College

Pensacola State College

North Florida Community College

Northwest Florida State College

Tallahassee Community College

Florida Gateway College (formerly Lake City Community College)

East Central Region Teams

Brevard Community College

College of Central Florida

Florida State College Jacksonville

Lake-Sumter Community College

Santa Fe College

Seminole State College of Florida

West Central Region Teams

Hillsborough Community College

State College of Florida

Polk State College

South Florida Community College

Valencia Community College

St. Petersburg College

Pasco-Hernando Community College

Southern Region Teams

Broward College

Florida Keys Community College

Indian River State College

Palm Beach State College