Montana Tech Honors Students Win Battle of the Brains Competition

03/09/2020

Battle of the brains winners

The 1st Annual Science Mine Fundraiser took place on Thursday, March 5, 2020, from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm. The event featured a trivia and build competition between sixteen teams from all over the Butte-Silver Bow community. The competition took place in three rounds as follows:

  • Round 1: General Science Trivia – general questions from chemistry, biology, mathematics, computing, physics, engineering
  • Round 2: Two different build activities – teams were given the same set of materials and had a fixed amount of time to build what was requested
  • Round 3: Butte Science Trivia – questions related to superfund activities, local climate and ecology, and local geology

The compliment of the teams was extremely varied, from departments from Montana Tech – including Petroleum, Mining, MBMG – to diverse groups from Tech, such as one comprised of folks from Electrical Engineering, Biology, and Chemistry. There were also quite a few non-Montana Tech teams, such as from Headframes Spirits, the Butte School District, and Pioneer Technical.

A team comprised of Montana Tech honors program students, Kaleb Starr, Isaac Gilfeather, Cody Tofflemire, and Hunter Boles, won with a total score of 37. As the winning team, they received $500.

Thank you to the sponsors who made this event possible: NorthWestern Energy, Clearwater Credit Union, CCCS, Inc., Opportunity Bank, Headframe Spirits, and Pioneer Technical Services. Also, thank you to the 10-member Science Mine Board of Directors who planned and prepared for this event.

All teams were provided pizza from Papa Murphy’s and the Broadway Café) and beer from the Quarry and Butte Brewing Company. Teams were also offered a souvenir pint glass with the event information, and the Science Mine logo etched on the glass courtesy of the Butte High School Vocational Program.

The Science Mine hopes to make this an annual event given the exceedingly positive feedback from those teams participating and the approximately 40 or so individuals present as spectators.