Students from Penrith’s Queen Elizabeth Grammar School have won their heat in a prestigious annual competition run by The Royal Society of Chemistry.
Henry Teasdale (year 11), Rhea Singh (year 10), Gemma O’Dowd and Finley Illet (year 9) competed against teams from schools across the north west in a day of quizzes, presentations and practical experiments. As last year’s winners, Austin Friars school in Carlisle had the privilege of hosting this year’s competition.
The day’s activities were devised locally for the north west heat. A team quiz was followed by separate tests for year 9 and years 10 and 11. Finally, the teams undertook two practical investigations; an iodine clock experiment, and making slime.
The team will now go on to complete against other regional winners in the UK finals, to be held at Manchester University in the spring.
Mrs Catherine Bent, chemistry teacher at QEGS, said: “Enthusing and exciting children with chemistry and encouraging them to consider further education and careers with chemistry is key to securing the next generation of talented chemical scientists. The Top of the Bench competition is one of the longest-standing activities for school children: The Royal Society of Chemistry has been organising and running it for more than 20 years.
“We are very proud of our team’s performance. Organisers commented on our year 9 students’ brilliant performance in their test. It was a tough competition this year and we came first by just one point; I hope we will do the north west proud in the national finals.”
