A team of Oxford high school students won the regional competition for the 2016 National Science Bowl over the weekend and are advancing to compete at the National Finals in Washington, D.C., in April.

This year marks the 26th time the national competition has been held.

“The National Science Bowl continues to be one of the premier academic competitions across the country, and prepares America’s students for future successes in some of the world’s fastest growing fields in research and engineering,” said U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz. “I am honored to congratulate all of the competitors who are advancing to the national finals where they will continue to showcase their talents as top students in math and science.”

The NSB brings together thousands of middle and high school students from across the country to compete in a fast-paced question-and-answer format where they solve technical problems and answer questions on a range of science disciplines including biology, chemistry, Earth and space science, physics and math.

A series of 116 regional middle school and high school tournaments are being held across the country from January through March. Winners will advance to represent their areas at the National Science Bowl held from April 28 to May 2 in Washington, D.C., for the final middle school and high school competitions.

The top 16 high school teams and the top 16 middle school teams in the National Finals will win $1,000 for their schools’ science departments. Prizes for the top two high school teams for the 2016 NSB will be announced at a later date.

The high school team that won the 2015 NSB received a nine-day, all-expenses-paid science trip to Alaska, where they learned more about glaciology, marine and avian biology, geology and plate tectonics. The second-place high school team at the 2015 NSB won a five-day, fully guided adventure tour of several national parks, which included a whitewater rafting trip.

More than 250,000 students have participated in the National Science Bowl in its 25-year history, and it is one of the nation’s largest science competitions. More than 14,000 students compete in the NSB each year.