Katikati College has taken out the Waikato and Bay of Plenty Chemquest competition for the first time.

As per usual over the last fifteen years, three Katikati College teams of Year 12 Chemistry students made tracks to Waikato University in Hamilton for the Waikato-Bay of Plenty Chemquest competition. There were 65 teams from 44 different schools. This is a fun event for the chemists where the questions are about real world Chemistry as well as what they are taught.

The first set of 10 questions was focussed on making up names from the symbols on the Periodic Table. The second set of questions consisted of excerpts from any visual media such as movies, You Tubes etc. The third was about songs or bands with chemistry titles or lyrics and recognising famous Chemists from their photos! The last set was made up of some cool experiments we cannot do in the classroom - see pictures below.

My motivational speech for the last 25 years of my teaching career has been to have fun but don’t come last! This has always worked with the highest placing ever being 7th and never last. I was not in the room for the results as I was talking to other Chemistry teachers about the NCEA exams coming up.

None of my Katikati teams came out with the other 500 people so I went into the Lecture Theatre to get them. One of my old lecturers was calling to me that Katikati College had won the competition by half a mark!! No way -was that possible! What about the decile 10 and private schools who always win it? But yes it was the Katikati College team of Lucy Douglas, Steven Zhang and Fergus Chinnery. The other two teams who got a very respectful 7th and 14th out of 65 were Sam Wahlers, Kelly Georgia and Melissa Van Houdt; Cerys Blackshaw, Bradley Guy-Taylor and William Taylor.

This result has shocked the Chemistry Community and given our Science Department and our school a boost to our great academic reputation.

Ever onward ever trying and we punch above our weight! Well done!

Anderley Middleton | TiC Chemistry