‘Top of the Bench’ competition
In January our Sidcot team of young chemists won the regional heat of the Royal Society of Chemistry ‘Top of the Bench’ competition at Bristol University and they were invited to participate in the national final at Loughborough University last weekend. The team travelled up overnight and enjoyed staying in a local hotel before assembling with 30 other teams from all parts of the UK including Scotland and Northern Ireland.
The first part of the competition was a challenging written paper and this was followed by a 2 hour practical exercise in the university chemistry laboratories. The Sidcot team acquitted themselves well and commented that the level of demand of the tasks was significantly harder than in the preliminary round. The event was rounded off with a light-hearted presentation by Loughborough Ph.D students where our team had to vote for which projects they would fund.
The team enjoyed the weekend and while we did not win the competition we can be pleased that we held our own in the company of some of the best young chemists in the country.
Congratulations to the Sidcot team of Nina Guy (Year 9), George Wayne (Year 11), Millie Heslington (Year 10) and James King (Year 9).