Three Ihutai students went to ARA on Thursday 21 September to participate in an inter-school chemistry competition.

Manaia, Ricardo and Brett (in the image above) went to ARA and met with 10 other teams from schools throughout Canterbury.  There they tested their brains in solving chemistry problems - building models of organic molecules, planning and carrying out chemical reactions to find the identity of chemical reagents.

They had a lot of fun and it sparked their interest in learning more about chemistry in the future.

The teachers weren't allowed to stay with the team (no cheating!) and instead got a tour of the top-notch ARA facilities.

In the end the top prize went to the Cashmere High School team. But the Haeata team got maximum points in the "Isomerism", "Reactions - Solids" and "Reactions - Solutions" sections, and some cool certificates to go with it.