For the fifth time in the past eight years,  the varsity physics team has placed first in Florida in the Physics Bowl competition and placed second in the Southeast Region which includes Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Puerto Rico.  The Division I team, coached by Advanced Placement Physics teacher Cinsy Krehbiel, includes Viorel Silaghi, Austin Camps, Neill Johnston, Muhammad Abdulla and Michael Fagan.

The AAPT Physics Bowl is an annual competition conducted throughout the United States.  The competition consists of a 45-minute, 40-question test, with the top five scorers in each division comprising the team for each school.  Students compete in one of two divisions: first-year physics students (Division I) and physics students who have taken more than one year of physics (Division II).  Overall more than 6,400 students competed in the contest.

“Mrs. Krehbiel told us to take a test and we ended up winning,” junior Neill Johnston said.

Coach Krehbiel ended her teaching career at West Shore with a victory at the Bowl.

“I am so proud of these students,” Krehbiel said. “They have worked hard this year to understand difficult physics concepts in our AP Physics 1 course, and it is nice to see their efforts turn into such positive results in this year’s Physics Bowl.  We have one of the largest AP Physics programs in the county, so we have the advantage that a lot of very strong students are competing on our varsity physics team.”

By Sarah Edmiston