Chemistry competition success

By Chris Main, Science Teacher

The RACI Titration Competition is an annual chemistry competition testing students' chemistry laboratory skill, as well as their teamwork, efficiency and accuracy. Thousands of students compete in May, in teams of three, at universities across Australia for the first round, which is a 90-minute titration challenge. The top (roughly) 10 to 20 percent of teams qualify for the National Finals, which were held last week at ANU for the ACT. Radford entered four teams in round one, and two qualified for last week's final.

The final is a much more difficult procedure, with extra steps and a more difficult chemical reaction that requires extra skill and care to produce an accurate result. This competition was three hours long, and students had to focus and work carefully for the whole time, as each step depended upon the accuracy of the previous steps.

The two Radford teams went in with a strategy built upon teamwork to maximise efficiency, which paid off as they placed first and second in the ACT. Congratulations to James Dixon, Natalie Neshev and Rohan Wilson from Year 12 for placing second and achieving 'highly commended' status for the accuracy of their result. Their achievement is especially notable as they are IB students, and the competition occurred during their mock exams.

First place winners were our Year 11 students Eloise Flynn and Scarlett Taylor, with former student Aurora Sookdeo, who has moved to another school but competed as a Collegian. Their result was graded ‘excellent’. We eagerly await the compilation of the national results from all venues, as both teams have a chance of placing highly in the national rankings.