RSC Belgium Chemistry Challenge 2024 Results and Prizes

The results of the RSC Belgium Chemistry Challenge 2024 were announced at our Celebration of Chemistry event on 10 September 2024 at the British School of Brussels (BSB) in Tervuren. For the 2024 Challenge, ten schools took part (four European Schools and six International Schools) with just over 100 students participating - a very encouraging number. This year saw a very good showing from students from the International School of Brussels (ISB). 

As usual, the Challenge was designed to test students’ chemical knowledge and initiative and consisted of 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 jointly by Juliette Martin and Nomura Rydoi both from ISB who each received a €50 award.

It was a triple tie for second place with Joaquim Dornelas Rangel from BSB, Riddhi Narlawar from the European School at Mol (ESM) and Antoni Zielinski of ISB all winning €25 prizes, while a third prize of €10 went to Jonas Baltramaitis from the European School of Luxembourg 1 (ESL1).

Section B - Structured questions

In this section the first prize of €50 was awarded to Naomi Trevelyan-Shipp of ISB with Juliette Martin of ISB picking up the second prize of €25. The third prize of €10 was awarded to Alexandre Escardino from BSB.

Section C - Thinking Matters

The top prize in this section of €50 went to Julius Jager from the European School of Brussels 1 (EEB1). The Second prize of €25 went to Alex Gal from Montgomery International School and the third prize worth €10 was awarded to Juyoung Chang of ISB.

The Keith Price Prize

With her first prize in Section A and second place in Section B, this year's Keith Price Prize was claimed by Juliette Martin (pictured below with RSC Belgium Chair Professor Bob Crichton and Dr Susan Schamp, RSC Belgium Schools Coordinator and the question setter for this year's Chemistry Challenge), who received an additional €100 reward.

Well done to everyone who took part in this year's Chemistry Challenge! Every student that entered the competition receives a certificate of participation. And, of course, we will be running the Challenge again in 2025 and look forward to further widening participation.

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!

Fantastic Plastic! Fantastic Success!

In the last week of February RSC Belgium organised a demo lecture tour of schools and a public lecture with Prof Dr Averil Macdonald emerita professor at Reading University and her famous 'Fantastic Plastic' lecture. The tour visited five schools: the European Schools at Mol, Brussels Laeken, Brussels Woluwe and Brussels Ixelles, and the British School of Brussels -  where we also held a public lecture on the evening of 26 February.

The lectures were a fantastic success with a total audience approaching 1000 students, RSC Belgium members and friends. Feedback from teachers at all the schools venues indicated that the lecture had certainly made an impact on the audiences and moved many to think more seriously about their future options for a science career.

Prof Macdonald (below) is Professor of Science Engagement at the University of Reading and is also a leading advocate for encouraging young women to get interested in science and engineering and seek science-based careers. Amongst many other roles she is a Trustee of the London Science Museum and chairs the UK Expert Group for Women in Science.

She has recently published a report on the issues around encouraging women into science, technology and engineering (STEM) - and why the current messaging is not right. Most girls decide that jobs and careers in science are “not for people like me”. The report shows why STEM outreach and engagement activities have a limited impact on girls and other young people who are under-represented in the STEM workforce and recommends a fresh approach.

You can download the report here.

Top lecture
Prof Macdonald's lecture explores the links between Lego™ blocks, zero pollution cars, disposable nappies, liquids that flow up hill, and false legs! She also shows how this links with the perfect recipe for slime - and shows how science and innovation can be used to make you a Millionaire!

Prof Macdonald's lecture gives a brief overview of the great variety of physical properties of plastics that make them suitable for various intriguing and surprising applications. She then introduces the concept of polymers consisting of long chain molecules, their ability to exist as solid and liquids and their ability to exhibit the properties of both (as in slime).

Lively demonstrations show the effects of increasing temperature, cross linking molecules, "tangling up" the polymer chains, and dissolving them in liquids. Some examples are given to show how by controlling what happens at the molecular level, the characteristics of the final material are determined. Averil focuses as much on enterprise and business opportunities as she does on the chemistry and properties of polymer molecules with plenty of interest for both budding engineers and entrepreneurs! And our audiences clearly loved it!

Big thanks
As well as huge thanks to all the schools, RSC Belgium acknowledges the invaluable help and expertise of Fabio Lucaccioni and Istvan Marko from Univerisite Catholique de Louvain in procuring and preparing the chemicals used in the lecture tour, the staff of the chemistry department at BSB for providing glassware and other vital equipment, and a special thank-you to our own Dr Ian Carson who took on the lion's share of organising and facilitating this very successful venture.