Chemistry Challenge 2020 results announced

The results of the RSC Belgium Chemistry Challenge 2020 were announced at our first webinar event on the evening of 24 September 2020. Due to the COVID19 restriction, this year's Chemistry Challenge was also a virtual event that was undertaken remotely by students.

For the 2020 Challenge, we received some 50 entries from six international and European schools in the Brussels area and beyond for this testing challenge of young people's chemical knowledge and initiative. This year the more chemistry orientated questions in Section A and B were a little more accessible, which resulted in more prize winners than for previous years. A selection of our participants are pictured below!

And the 2020 winner of the Keith Price Prize for best overall performance in terms of chemical knowledge came from a school that has not won previously.

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 shared by Maria Stanescu and Mia Williams from European School Brussels IV in Laeken (EEB4) and Riana Sadretdinova of St John’s International School in Waterloo (St John's) who each received a €50 award. There were seven winners of €25 second prizes: Ashling Neill from EEB4, Yosra Al Hayani of the ISF International School in Waterloo (ISF), Louis Baranger and Matteo Pourbaix, who both study at St John’s, Nefeli Giannaloo from the European School at Mol (ES Mol), and Sofia Mori and Martin Prucha both from the British School of Brussels in Tervuren (BSB). Third prizes of €10 went to Alia Meek of St. George’s International School in Luxembourg (St George's), Nicholas Smits and Issie Bentley from BSB, and Tyler McGee and William Dobney both at ES Mol.

Section B - Structured questions

In this section the first prize of €50 was awarded to Yosra Al Hayani from ISF with Martin Prucha of BSB picking up the second prize worth €25. Three third prizes of €10 were awarded to Nicholas Smits of BSB, Alia Meek from St George’s and Louis Baranger of St.John’s.

Section C - Thinking Matters

For this section the top prize of €50 went to Matteo Pourbaix of St John’s, with ESMol's Tyler McGee picking up a second prize of €25, and two third places worth €10 awarded to Alia Meek of St George’s and Nefeli Giannaloo ES Mol.

The Keith Price Award

With an excellent performance in both chemistry sections, Yosra Al Hayani from ISF, pictured below, also received the prestigious Keith Price Prize for the best best overall score worth an additional €100. This is the first time that a student from ISF has won our Chemistry Challenge.

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 2021 and look forward to widening participation!