Elements in Danger!

On the evening of Thursday 24 September from 19h30 RSC Belgium presented its first ever webinar event. The subject was ‘Elements in Danger’ and our speaker was Professor David Cole-Hamilton, Past President of the European Chemical Society and Irvine Professor of Chemistry at the University of St. Andrews. The webinar was also the occasion for the announcement of our prizewinners in our 2020 Chemistry Challenge and this year’s winner of the coveted Keith Price Award.

The webinar was run via Microsoft Teams with our Chairman and master of ceremonies Bob Crichton in a seminar room at Universite Catholique Louvain with technical maestro Fabio Lucaccioni and Prof Cole-Hamilton (pictured below at a previous RSC Belgium event) 'broadcasting' from his home in St. Andrews.

A couple of rehearsals were arranged before the event itself to iron out any technical glitches and the systems worked well on the night. 

Elemental

As part of their contribution to the International Year of the Periodic Table, the European Chemical Society produced a new Periodic Table (see below).

It is an amazing thought that everything we see, touch, and smell is made up of only 90 building blocks: the 90 naturally occurring chemical elements. The new periodic table only displays those 90 elements + technetium and promethium.

The area occupied by each element relates to its abundance in the earth’s crust and in the atmosphere (on a log scale) and the colour indicates how long we shall be able to use these elements if we carry on as we are. Four elements are coloured black because they can come from mines where wars are fought over mineral rights.

31 of the elements are used in making smartphones (indicated by a phone symbol). All four conflict minerals are included amongst the elements in a phone and six will be dissipated within less than 100 years unless we do something.

Prof Cole-Hamilton presented the new Periodic Table and discussed selected elements with a view to understanding how we can continue to have the lifestyle we have and protect the 90 vital elements that make up our beautiful and diverse planet.

More details on the new Periodic Table including notes for teachers and learners, translations into most European languages and a link to a new Video Game 'Elemental Escapades - A Periodic Table Adventure' can be found at on the EuCheMS website.  

Revisit the webinar

The webinar was recorded using the Teams software and is now available to view whenever you want.

You can also access a copy of the powerpoint presentation used by Prof Cole-Hamilton here. 

2018 Chemistry Challenge Winners announced, top prize shared!

The results of the RSC Belgium Chemistry Challenge 2018 were announced and the talented prize winners picked up their winnings at a special RSC Belgium event with Prof David Cole-Hamilton, past president of EuChemS, the European Chemical Society, on the evening of 20 September at the British School of Brussels (BSB). Once again we received some 100 entries from international and European schools in Brussels and beyond for this testing challenge of young people's chemical knowledge and initiative. And for the first time ever we had a dead-heat for the Keith Price Prize for best overall performance in terms of chemical knowledge.

The RSC Belgium Chemical Challenge has three sections:
A/ A chemistry multiple choice paper
B/ A structured questions on chemistry, and
C/ A 'Thinking Matters' paper that is not chemistry based

And the top results were as follows:

Section A: Multiple choice
First place was taken by Faiz Haris Osman from BSB with second place shared by Thomas Groom of BSB and Vincent Sietses from St. Johns International School. Third place was a three-way tie between Linxiao Chen from BSB, Ignacia Bricchi from St. Johns and Maria Tencheva from the European School Brussels IV at Laeken. Some of the prize winners are pictured below with our special guest Prof. David Cole-Hamilton.

Section B: Structured Questions
In this section first prize was awarded to Vincent Sietses from St. Johns with second prize shared by Lara Melloul from the International School of Brussels (ISB) and Faiz Haris Osman of BSB. Two students also shared the third prize: Thomas Groom of BSB and Luan Cruz Pitanattero of the European School at Mol.

Section C: Thinking Matters
Here first place was awarded to Faiz Haris Osman from BSB with Bernard Benz from BSB taking second prize and third place shared between Shahriar Hossain from St. Johns and Natalie Kopp from the European School Brussels III at Ixelles.

Keith Price Prize
For the first time ever, we had a dead-heat for the top spot, the prestigious Keith Price Prize for the best best overall score in the chemistry focused sections (A and B). The joint winners were Faiz Haris Osman from BSB and Vincent Sietses of St. Johns.

First prize winners in each section received €50, second €25 and third places €10 with the winners of the Keith Price Prize receiving an additional €100 each.

Well done to everyone who took part in this year's Chemistry Challenge! Every student that entered the competition receives a certificate of participation. We will be running the Challenge again in 2019.