On the 23 January 2014, the Chemistry Elite Squad travelled to the David Keir building on the Stranmillis road to take part in the regional ‘Top of the Bench’ chemistry competition.
The team Sonny Erskine and Aswin Abraham (Yr10), David Cunningham(Yr11) and Annie McQuoid (Yr12), arrived at the building and 15 other schools were there. The first round was on general chemistry, and it was out of 20. We scored 18, and that put us in the lead! In the next two rounds; Hazards and Metals, we scored perfectly, so we were still in the lead! In the next round; Balancing Equations, David and Annie performed excellently and scored perfectly again, keep us in the lead at the half way point. We thought we were going to London to represent Northern Ireland in Chemistry. We had done so well in the parts we could have learnt, but then it got to the part where we couldn’t revise. We lost 2 marks in the dingbats, and went one behind. In the final two rounds, apparatus and scientists, we lost 3 marks in each and we finished on 85 points. The team that won finished on 92 points, so we weren’t too far off.
Overall we finished 5th in Northern Ireland for Chemistry. When you put it like that, it’s not so bad! I would like to thank Miss Chambers for making this possible, providing transport for the event, and for all her hard work put in to this competition.
By Sonny Erskine (Year 10)