Chemistry Analyst Competition 2024

On Wednesday 12th June, ten teams of three students each competed in the annual Royal Society of Chemistry Analyst Competition 2024.  This Chemistry challenge aims to provide some tasks which are relatively familiar to students, such as titrations and others that are likely to be unfamiliar, such as chromatographic separations and molecular spectroscopy.  The competition allows Year 12 students to demonstrate and expand on their existing knowledge of Chemistry, skills and aptitude for analytical science through practical analytical experiments based on relevant societal or industrial problems. 

In the words of some of the participating students:

'We had the privilege of being one of the five Kendrick teams taking part in the Royal Society of Chemistry’s School’s Analyst Challenge. The challenge consisted of 3 experiments - a titration, chromatography and measuring the volume of gas produced - that had to be conducted precisely and accurately to get results which would then be used to answer questions, which would be marked by the RSC and be the basis of judging who won the competition. We really enjoyed meeting new people and applying our Chemistry skills to ‘real life’ situations. The titration, albeit complicated, was very interesting to conduct and taught us a lot about the importance of precision. Overall, we really enjoyed the experience and would like to thank the Chemistry department for providing us with this opportunity.'

Kimberley, Trisha and Inakshi

'The RSC Analyst competition was an incredibly enriching experience for us as it enabled us to develop our critical thinking skills in the context of Chemistry. We thoroughly enjoyed working together as a team and meeting new people through the collaboration of Reading boys and Kendrick for the competition. The tasks provided introduced us to interesting techniques in Chemistry, some of which we will learn in Year 13, like Thin Layer Chromatography. Working with unfamiliar chemicals and techniques was an exciting experience and inspires us to research chemical analysis further.'

Maria, Shriya and Matilda

All teams have submitted their analysis to the Royal Society of Chemistry, and we now eagerly await the results. The winning team will receive an RSC certificate and will go on to compete in the regional finals against teams from across the south-east region.

We would like to thank Miss Rosser-Evans and Mrs Rollings for organising this event at Reading Boys. 

Dr Joshi - Head of Chemistry