Top of the Bench back in-person for 2022

On Saturday 17 December, RSC Belgium was able to hold our first in-person Top of the Bench (TOTB) regional heat for a few years. The heat was held later in the year than normal, which meant that just two schools were able to take part. But both the British School of Brussels (BSB) and St. Georges International School from Luxembourg were able to field two teams each to compete on the day for a very tight competition.

BSB were on home 'turf' as the event was held in the chemistry laboratories at the school in Tervuren. St. Georges travelled up from Luxembourg on the day arriving in good time for 'kick off' at 13h30.

This year the first part of the competition was an 'Escape Room Challenge' quiz devised by RSC Belgium Committee member Susan Schamp. This was a bit of an icebreaker and definitely a teambuilding effort. Each team had to solve a chain of clues with the first team to ‘escape’ deemed the winner.

After refreshments the second element of the day was the Practical Activity Challenge in which team members needed to make some strategic choices, carry out experiments, process observations and relate their findings to a potential application of recycling a metal. The practical element was, as ever, devised by RSC Committee member Rita Woodward.

Joining Rita and Susan in observing and judging the event were Tim Reynolds and Olivier Schamp (pictured above). RSC teaching staff was represented by Jonathan Norris and St. Georges teachers present throughout the day were Kayleigh van Dongen and Marco Macedo Foz.

A close result

The competition was extremely keen and a very tight contest was eventually won by Team Sodium from the British School of Brussels. In second place was Team Fluorine from St Georges with their Copper team taking 'bronze' position. Team Iodine from BSB was not far behind in fourth.

BSB's Team Sodium won the coveted Keith Price Cup (see above) and will now represent Belgium section at the National finals of TOTB that will be held on Saturday 25 March 2023 at the University of East London. The theme of this event will be Sustainable Energy.

Our thanks as ever to Rita and Susan for developing the written and practical tasks for our Top of the Bench event and all the teams for their enthusiasm and hard work. Congratulation to the winners and everyone who took part.