“Guys, have the buzzers been tested?”
On Saturday, Feb. 21, volunteers for the 2026 MIT Science Bowl High School Regional hustled around the spacious auditorium, setting up chairs and buzzers and laying out sharpened pencils. The room slowly quieted as all high schoolers filed in, dressed in matching, dark green Science Bowl T-shirts.
By late afternoon, after rounds and rounds of fast-paced questioning, the auditorium pulsed with tension and anxiously bouncing knees as the final seconds of the competition ticked down.
“Patients with Tay–Sachs disease —” began the moderator, Gideon Tzafriri, president of the Science Bowl and a senior at MIT.
A buzzer cut him off.
“Interrupt,” Tzafriri announced.
The entire audience seemed to hold their breath. A student from Lexington High School Team 1 offered their answer: “lysosome.”
“Correct.”
Moments later, the Lexington, Massachusetts, team sealed the match. The room erupted into cheers, with students vaulting from their seats and rushing down to hug and congratulate their teammates. The final score of the 2026 MIT Science Bowl was 148 to 52, with Lexington High School Team 1 winning against Philips Exeter Team 1.
“I think I can speak for all of us when I say we feel ecstatic,” said Jerry Xu, one of the members of the winning team. “It’s been a long-term collaborative effort, we’ve been practicing for many years. We’ve worked together as a team for so long, it’s just such a great feeling to be here with my friends.”
Around Xu, the rest of his teammates proudly nodded.
The 2026 MIT High School Regional Science Bowl marked the Institute’s first time hosting a regional competition, expanding its long-running involvement with the national tournament. While MIT has hosted the national high school competition for eight years, this regional event created a new qualifying pathway for New England schools vying for a place at the National Science Bowl in Washington.
The competition involves round-robin style questions on complex biology, chemistry, and physics questions, and some topics lie well beyond the scope of regular high school classes. In a long day of tough science questions and rapidly beeping buzzers, the event had brought together 26 teams from 14 schools across Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island.
“The whole team put immense effort into learning about science, enjoying themselves, having fun, and trusting the process,” said Nicholas Gould, the Lexington High School team’s coach and their physics teacher. “It’s not about the win, it’s the process of getting there, the experiences they take with them and what they learn about themselves and each other.”
For many competitors, the draw wasn’t just the chance to win a medal, but to further their knowledge.
“I came here because I wanted to be on a science team just because I like science, and my experience has been pretty amazing,” said Vritti Mehra, a student at Portsmouth High School in New Hampshire.
Others spoke of the importance of representation.
“I’m proud to be a girl in this tournament because as you can see, there are not a lot of females here. But I’m very glad that I’m part of this community because of the friendliness, the competition, and this fostered a love for science for me,” said Katherine Wang, from Lexington High School Team 3, who has been competing since sixth grade. “My mom has a PhD, so she really inspires me to become the best.”
The regional marked a beginning to MIT, and an end for many graduating seniors, both competitors and volunteers.
“Most of us have been doing Science Bowl since middle school, so this feels like a culmination of everything we’ve done,” said William Jung, another member of the winning team.
For Tzafriri, the president of the bowl, the event carried a similar resonance, since he also competed in the event himself when he was in high school.
“It’s nice to finally finish off something that I started in high school,” said Tzafriri.
As the event came to an end, the winning team lined up at the front of the auditorium, with proud grins and the golden medals around their necks glistening under fluorescent lights. Cameras flashed in quick succession as the event’s organizers and volunteers watched proudly from either side.
“I get to help kids have fun with science and actively participate in science,” said Jiaxing Wang, one of the event’s organizers. “The Science Bowl is something I discovered in my junior year of high school: It was very late in the cycle, so I want to be able to help kids like me to compete and have the experience they deserve and desire.”
For Lexington’s seniors, this event sends them to Washington. For MIT, it signals something larger: a continuous investment into young scientists, encouraging a future full of possibility.