Five high school students, including two from Detroit, will represent Michigan in the nation's capital this weekend to compete in the U.S. Department of Energy 2002 National Science Bowl. The competition runs from May 3-6.

Keith B. Williams, director of the office of Minority Student Initiatives in Wayne State University's chemistry department, will accompany the team to Washington D.C. Williams, who is also a state coordinator for the Department of Energy Science Bowl, assembled the team that will compete this weekend from Michigan.

The DOE Science Bowl features fast-paced questions-and-answers on categories that include: astronomy, biology, physics, chemistry, mathematics, current events in the science community, computer, earth and general sciences. A total of 65 teams will be competing. The top two teams in each division win a monetary prize for their school and the top five teams overall, win trophies, calculators, IBM work pads and trips.

The two students from Detroit, who participated in Wayne State's free ACT preparation program, are teamed with three students from Midland.

The three students from Midland participated in a regional Science Bowl competition held at Wayne State in February. That competition was sponsored by the National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers (NOBCChE). The Midland team then advanced to participate in NOBCChE's championship Science Bowl competition in New Orleans.

The Science Bowl and ACT preparation program are among five other programs that Williams works with in Wayne State's chemistry department in partnership with Detroit Public School's middle school and high school students.

Wayne State University is a premier institution of higher education offering more than 350 academic programs through 14 schools and colleges to more than 31,000 students in metropolitan Detroit.