Chemistry Challenge 2022 results announced

The results of the RSC Belgium Chemistry Challenge 2022 were announced at our event on 29 September with Prof Vincent Lemaitre at the British School of Brussels (BSB) in Tervuren. As for the previous two years, this year's Chemistry Challenge was undertaken as a virtual event in the early summer with the students working remotely at their schools.

For the 2022 Challenge, we received entries from the majority of our group of international and European schools in the Brussels area and beyond and, as ever, the Challenge was designed to test the student's chemical knowledge and initiative. In total entries for 2022 were significantly up on 2021.

The RSC Belgium Chemical Challenge has three sections:

• A chemistry multiple choice paper (Section A)
• A structured questions on chemistry (Section B), and
• A 'Thinking Matters' paper that is not chemistry based (Section C)

The top results were as follows:

Section A - Multiple choice

First prize for this section was won by Olivia Brenninkmeijer from the Antwerp International School (AIS), pictured below, who received a €50 award.

In second place was Giorgia Lucrezia la Cognata from the European School in Mol (ESMol) who won €25 and the third prize of €10 went to Zeynep Ozel of BSB.

Section B - Structured questions

In this section the first prize of €50 was awarded to Kiara Kuralla of BSB with Matei Slavnicu from St.Johns International School (St John’s) picking up the second prize of €25. Two third prizes of €10 were awarded to Siena Ootes of the European School 1 in Luxembourg (ESL1) and Zeynep Ozel of BSB.

Section C - Thinking Matters

For this section the top prize of €50 went to Kheya Sinha of BSB, with BSB's Kalvin Biggs picking up a second prize of €25. Four third places worth €10 were awarded to Simon Guisset and Philipp Weisser of ESL1 and Kiara Kuralla and Naomi Copner from BSB.

The Keith Price Prize

With an outstanding performances in Section B, and receiving an additional €100, this year's Keith Price Prize was claimed by Kiara Kuralla of BSB (pictured below on the far right with some other BSB winners - from left to right Kalvin Biggs, Kheya Sinha, Naomi Copner, Zeynep Ozel and Kiara). 

Well done to everyone who took part in this year's Chemistry Challenge! Every student that entered the competition receives a certificate of participation (see pic from ESL1 below). And, of course, we will be running the Challenge again in 2023 and look forward to further widening participation!

St Georges retain TOTB trophy again

Despite the continuing challenges and restrictions due to COVID, RSC Belgium successfully organised and ran its annual 'international eliminator' for the Royal Society of Chemistry's Top of the Bench (TOTB) competition in late 2021. And this year more teams than ever were involved with 13 teams from seven international and European schools taking part. The results are now in and the winning team, who will now represent Belgium in the TOTB grand final in Spring 2022, is Team Titanium (pictured below) from St. Georges International School in Luxembourg. The school therefore retains the Keith Price Cup and makes it three years in a row as RSC Belgium TOTB champs!

Once again, the competition had to be run remotely during late November and early December with the results evaluated over the Christmas holiday period by our TOTB team: Rita Woodward and Susan Schamp.

Our 2021 TOTB eliminator again retained the usual elements of the competition: a written test component for individual team members and a practical group exercise.

This year the written element was a 30-minute online Chemistry Quiz with questions tailored to the three age groups in each team and the practical element requiring input from all four team members based around a simple 'Everyday Chemistry Around You' scenario that could be carried out at school or at home depending on COVID restrictions in place at the time.

TOTB teams are composed of four students with two students from Year 9 (UK equivalent to 3rd year or Grade 8), one student from Year 10 UK (4th year or Grade 9) and one student from Year 11 (5th year or Grade 10).

Online quiz

The online quiz was worked up by Susan. “The quiz worked very well considering it was our first try with this format allowing us to set a wider range of questions than would have been possible with just a pen and paper,” says Susan. “For example, there was a video round where students watched a short video clip showing a chemical transformation or technique, which they then answered questions on.”

The quizzes consisted of 40 questions and students had 30 minutes to complete as many questions as they could before the quiz automatically submitted. “One school did have some technical problems which we will need to solve before running our next TOTB event,” notes Susan.

Practical element

Rita oversaw the practical element that also included a taster video introduction to get the teams thinking about de-gassing fizzy drinks – the subject of the experiment. “The practical task looked to be simple but deceptively proved to be more challenging than for previous years,” says Rita. “Excellent time management, organisation and thinking outside the box were required. This year’s practical was certainly tricky, but many students thoroughly enjoyed the task!”

Alejandro Perez, the coordinating chemistry teacher at St. Georges International School for their teams commented: “We do not appreciate how much more challenging it is to plan a full investigation than to follow instructions in a practical activity, and the event has given our students the opportunity experience the scientific method put into practice.”

Challenging event

In 2021 only four teams from two schools were able to complete and return results in our first attempt at a COVID-proof event, but this year 13 teams from seven schools were involved – returning participation to pre-COVID levels. Teams were entered by Antwerp International School (AIS), the British School of Brussels (BSB), European Schools I and II in Luxembourg, the International School of Flanders (ISF) in Waterloo, St. John’s International School in Waterloo and St. George's International School in Luxembourg.

As ever the competition was very close with some notable individual performances and excellent teamwork, but the overall winner was the Titanium team from St Georges thanks to ranking first in the written part and a top three placement in the practical. Runners up were Team Chromium from BSB with top marks in the practical test and a top three placement in the written section.

Our congratulations to Team Titanium who will go forward to represent RSC Belgium at the RSC’s TOTB final in 2022. And our thanks to everyone who took part in the TOTB eliminator this year. RSC Belgium goodies are on the way to the winning team and all participating team members will receive certificates.

Many thanks to St. George's for providing photos of the winning Titanium team.

Kitchen Chemistry goes Belgium

In September RSC Belgium embarked on its biggest ever school tour with Prof. Stephen Ashworth of the University of East Anglia, aka the Kitchen Chemist. Our Kitchen Chemistry tour saw Stephen give 15 individual demonstration lectures or talks at six venues over five days. In total over 1 800 individuals participated in at least one of the events. The tour was partially funded by the first ever RSC Outreach Grant awarded to a section based outside the UK or Republic of Ireland and saw the section working with some new venues and audiences. All in all the Kitchen Chemistry tour was a tremendous success!

The tour kicked off on the morning of Monday 16 September with a Kitchen Chemistry demonstration lecture for elementary pupils at St Johns International School in Waterloo. Students from the International School of Flanders also came to this show.

After lunch Prof Ashworth gave a talk on the Periodic Table that he has developed specially for the International Year of the Periodic Table (IYPT2019) to a group of older students.

A quick trip to the museum complex on the Waterloo battlefield was followed by an evening Kitchen Chemistry show for the Waterloo Scouts at St. Antony's Church Hall in Braine-l'Alleud. This was our first event organised for scouts in Belgium.

Tuesday saw the Kitchen Chemist with his chaperon and chauffeur for the week, RSC Belgium secretary Tim Reynolds, heading for the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) in Geel. At JRC Geel we were hosted by RSC member Dr Hendrik Emons and set up in the centre's auditorium to give a Kitchen Chemistry demo in the morning and the Periodic Table talk in the afternoon. The audience for these two shows were students from the neighbouring European School at Mol plus JRC staff. The JRC are looking to expand their outreach work to schools and hoped to learn from the Kitchen Chemist's experience.

If its Wednesday, then it must be the British School of Brussels in Tervuren. Here three Kitchen Chemistry demonstrations and one Periodic Table talk were given to students during the day. In addition, in the evening a public performance of the Kitchen Chemistry demonstration lecture was given. This evening event was also the prize giving for our 2019 Chemistry Challenge winners.

Woluwe European School was the venue on Thursday 19 September with one performance each of Kitchen Chemistry and the IYPT talk to appreciative student audiences.

The tour was completed on Friday 20 September with our first ever trip to Antwerp. The venue was Antwerp International School where two Kitchen Chemistry demonstrations were given and a final Periodic Table talk.

Our thanks to all the teachers, technicians and RSC Belgium volunteers involved in making this very successful tour a reality. Feedback from students and teachers was universally fantastic and we may well be inviting the Kitchen Chemist back to Belgium in the near future. Second helpings anyone?

Chemistry Challenge 2019 Results announced!

The results of the RSC Belgium Chemistry Challenge 2019 have been announced and the talented prize winners picked up their winnings at a special RSC Belgium event on the evening of 18 September just before our public Kitchen Chemistry demonstration lecture. The prizes were presented by Prof. Stephen Ashworth (aka The Kitchen Chemist) at the British School of Brussels (BSB).

Once again we received around 100 entries from international and European schools in Brussels and beyond for this testing challenge of young people's chemical knowledge and initiative. This year a particularly strong performance was noted for the winner of the Keith Price Prize for best overall performance in terms of chemical knowledge.

The RSC Belgium Chemical Challenge has three sections:

1. A chemistry multiple choice paper
2. A structured questions on chemistry, and
3. 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 Maxwell Michalec from St Johns International School (St. Johns), with second place going to Rutvi Shah of the British School of Brussels (BSB). Third place was a tie between Ewan Cook from BSB and Paul Spence-Rechard of the European School Brussels I at Uccle (EEB1). Some of the prize winners are pictured below with our special guest Prof. Stephen Ashworth and Section Chairman Prof Bob Crichton.

Section B: Structured Questions

In this section first prize was again won by Maxwell Michalec from St. Johns with Ewan Cook and Robbie Goodall both from BSB tied for second place. Thrid prize was also a tie between Aaryan Metha of BSB and Dillen Lee from the European School at Mol.

Section C: Thinking Matters

Here first place was awarded to Pippa Hartog who picked up her prize at a seperate ceremony when the Kitchen Chemist visited her school - Antwerp International School - on Friday 20 Spetember. Osobel Peppiette of Uccle European School took second place and the third-prize winner was Aura Sofia Ortega Claici from European School Brussels IV in Laeken.

Keith Price Prize

By winning both chemistry sections, Maxwell Michalec of St. Johns also recieved the prestigious Keith Price Prize for the best best overall score. A remarkable effort!

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

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 2020 and look forward to widening participation! 

2017 Chemistry Challenge Winners announced

The results of the RSC Belgium Chemistry Challenge 2017 were announced and the talented prize winners picked up their winnings at a special RSC Belgium event with Dr Matthew Andrews of NATO on the evening of 27 September at the British School of Brussels (BSB). We once again received over 100 entries from international and European schools in Brussels and beyond for this testing challenge of young people's chemical knowledge and initiative.

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 shared by Jakob Bull and Tom Valenduc from BSB. Second place was a three-way tie with the prizewinners being Caroline Di Vittorio from the International School of Brussels (ISB) and Caio Hansen and Vrushal Mody, both from BSB. Third place was awarded to James Tissot of ISB.

Section B: Structured Questions

In this section first prize was awarded to Aleksander Ziolkowski from St Johns International School (St. Johns) and second prize was claimed by Nekane Medrano Cuetos of ISB. Third prize was shared by Jakob Bull and Emma Brown, both of BSB. Some of the prizewinners are pictured above with RSC Belgium Chairman Tim Reynolds.

Section C: Thinking Matters

Here first place was awarded to Gabriela van Bergen from BSB (now in Madrid), with a tie for second place between Medhir Dillum and Vrushal Mody, both also from BSB.  Leo Sheils from Antwerp International School (AIS) took third prize.

Keith Price Prize

Jakob Bull of BSB, pictured above with RSC Belgium chairman Tim Reynolds, also received the Keith Price Prize for best overall score in the chemistry focused sections (A and B). First prize winners received €50, second €25 and third places €10 with the winner of the Keith Price Prize receiving an additional €100.

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 2018.