Woodhouse chemists show their mettle... and their medals

Gold medalist Mufid 

 

Woodhouse chemistry students scored big this term when many of them took part in the 53rd annual UK Chemistry olympiad.

 

The Chemistry Olympiad is the leading chemistry competition for students in secondary education across the UK. Run annually, the Olympiad is an opportunity for teachers to challenge their chemistry students, helping them to develop creative thinking, and apply their existing knowledge in new and interesting contexts.

 

Woodhouse chemistry teacher Sandra Knight said "I organise this every year and it’s so nice for students to get some recognition for the hard work they put in by winning medals in prestigious competitions like this. They did so well again this year, congratulations to everyone who took part."

 

Student Mufid (pictured above), who came to Woodhouse from The Archer Academy, secured a Gold medal. He told us "I enjoyed the test. It was a challenge filled with unique questions which helped give me an insight into the kind of problems chemists must have to solve. Though I must admit that I was not expecting to do well. I looked at a few questions before hand and realised how hard it was going to be. I decided to do it anyway as I thought if even if I did badly, it would not negatively effect me in the future; it was an opportunity I did not want to waste. Even after I'd taken the test, I initially didn't think I done so well. It was to my surprise that I found out I had. The moral of my story... take as many opportunities as possible. One will work out for you eventually."

 

Honourable mention also goes to our silver medalists - Oranus, Jegors, Oliver, Victoria and Gkinovefa.  

 

Principal John Rubinstein, who is to retire from his post at the end of this term, said "I've been at this college since 1994 and the quality of our science students and teachers never fails to make me proud. Our chemistry department works incredibly hard supporting our students in these sort of extracurricular tests of mental strength, that enhance their learning. It's no surprise so many of our chemists go on to study at the top universities and medical schools."

 

 

L6 bronze medalists - L to R: Paniz, Aisha, Samuel and Michael

 

And our equally worthy bronze medal winners (joining those pictured above) were Mashal, Samuel, Rhiannon, Emmanuella, German, Habil, Ari and Lucy. 

 

The competition is made up of three stages, but the majority of students only compete in the first stage. The first challenge for successful entrants is a written test of their chemical knowledge, based on real-world chemistry problems. This round takes place at college and takes two hours. Test questions often stimulate a lot of debate, raising awareness of what chemistry is all about. It is a great opportunity for students to develop and showcase some of the skills they’ll need at university and beyond.