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News 2019

2019 School’s Analyst Heat Competitions

24 Jan 2019
2018 School's Analyst Winners: Coláiste Choilm (Ballincollig, Co. Cork).

The Schools' Analyst Competition is a UK/Ireland-based competition run by the Royal Society of Chemistry Analytical Division. The Republic of Ireland Sub-Region of this division have been invited to hold three heat competitions to select teams to go forward into this year’s UK and Ireland Final (held in June in the UK).

These team will compete with other finalists that are first year sixth form students (5th Year Leaving Certificate) studying AS level Chemistry or equivalent (i.e. Year 12).

Programme Structure
In order to select the Republic of Ireland teams, three national heats will be run in Ireland – Dublin City University (1st May 2019), University College Cork (2nd May 2019), and National University of Ireland Galway (3rd May 2019). Teams entering these heats must comprise three students (with an accompanying teacher). All members of the teams must be in 5th year of the Leaving Certificate Cycle. Teams will be required to undertake a practical analytical determination based on problems relevant to industrial or social needs. These are judged for skill, understanding and accuracy and are intended to promote team work and safety in the laboratory. These heat competitions aim to test the participants on tasks which are relatively familiar to the students such as titrations/back titrations and tasks which are likely to be less familiar, such as chromatographic separations and spectrophotometry. In this way, it is hoped that the competitors will learn new skills, as well as demonstrate their existing knowledge, skills and aptitude for analytical science. The set of experiments are designed to be both fun and educational. Instructions will be given and students will be supervised but help from staff will be limited to ensure fair competition.

Teams will be placed 1st, 2nd and 3rd in each heat. The top team will then be selected to go forward to the final to be held in the UK in June 2019. All travel expenses will be paid for by the RSC Analytical Division for the team entering the Final.

We are inviting your School to nominate one team of three 5th year students (plus teacher) to enter into a heat to take place in UCC (2nd May) 2019. The UCC heat will take place at 11am in the Kane Building (1st year teaching laboratories) on the day your team is selected to compete and the event will take approx. 3 hours (details to be confirmed upon acceptance into competition). A tour of UCC and the campus will be organised and a special prize giving ceremony will take place later that same day. The event should finish for 5pm.

Some CPD for accompanying teachers will also be offered while the students tackle the analysis tasks in the School of Chemistry laboratories.

Entry Details
As places for the UCC heat will be limited to 12 Schools, those interested in participating are required to submit a 500 words essay on why their school should be selected to compete in the UCC heat of the 2019 Republic of Ireland Schools’ Analyst Heat Competitions. Schools must also complete the application form and send this with the essay. The deadline for submission of the essay is 5pm Friday 22nd March 2019.

2019 Republic of Ireland Schools’ Analyst Heat Application Form

The finalists for the UCC heat will be notified by Friday 29th March via email. All entries must be submitted via email to chemistry@ucc.ie

For more information on the overall competition, Click Here.

Contact Details
To discuss this competition further, please email: Dr Eric Moore

School of Chemistry

Scoil na Ceimic

Second Floor, Kane Building, University College Cork, T12 YN60

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