Results of 4th Annual Laboratory Skills Contest for High School Chemistry Students.
As part of its celebration of National Chemistry Week and the Festival of Science and Technology, the U.C.F.V. Chemistry Department hosted its 4th annual laboratory skills contest for high-school students on Saturday, October 16.
Eleven teams of four students, representing high schools from Abbotsford, Chilliwack and Mission, took part in this one-day event, with each team member completing two experiments. In one experiment, each member of a team was required to standardize a given solution of potassium permanganate and then use the standardized solution to determine the molar mass of an oxalate salt by means of a redox titration.
In the second experiment, participants completed an inorganic synthesis, preparing copper(I) chloride from copper(II) nitrate.
The team of Roh-Eul Yoo, Derek Wong, Michelle Kooy, and Amandah MacKinnon, representing Yale Secondary School, finished in first place in both experiments and were accordingly declared overall winners.
The runner-up in both experiments was the team representing Abbotsford Senior Secondary School, consisting of Mike Gebert, Farzin Pouyan, Poonam Jatana, and Marcio Penner. Although this is primarily a team event and all members of the Yale team obtained excellent results in the titration experiment, Roh-Eul Yoo was recognized as the best individual student. Roh-Eul, along with Jordan Brigden of a second team from Yale, and Cam Scott of Heritage Park Secondary, each gained the maximum possible marks from the synthesis experiment.
All participants should be congratulated for their willingness to spend a sunny October Saturday working indoors in a chemistry laboratory. Participants were entertained with a short chemistry magic show at the end of the contest.
The event was co-ordinated by Dr. Art Last of the U.C.F.V. Chemistry Department with the assistance of the following members of the department: Aileen Ablog, Roshan Cader, Shawna Dyck, Astrid Opsetmoen, Gordon von Hollen, Jane Webb, and Noham Weinberg. Additional assistance was provided by the following U.C.F.V. student volunteers: Simran Bains, Camilla Coates, Jim Crowley, Rebecca Dyck, Greg Letendre, and Janick Livera.
Prizes were donated by A and B Sound, Towne Cinema, Fisher Scientific, Anachemia Scientific, VWR Scientific and the U.C.F.V. Bookstore. Financial support was received from the Canadian Society for Chemistry, the B.C. Information, Science and Technology Agency, the U.C.F.V. Faculty Staff Association, and the U.C.F.V. Department of Employee and Student Services.
PREVIOUS WINNERS IN THE COMPETITION WERE
