2018 School’s Analyst Heat Competitions

2 Feb 2018

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 – University College Cork (23^rd and 24^th April 2018), Dublin City University (26^th April 2018) and National University of Ireland Galway (30^th April 2018). Teams entering these heats must comprise three students (with an accompanying teacher). All members of the teams must be in 5^th 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.

Teams will be placed 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd in each heat. The top team will then be selected to go forward to the final to be held in the UK at Bangor University on 20^th/21^st June 2018. 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 5^th year students (plus teacher) to enter into a heat to take place in UCC (23^rd and 24^th April) 2018. The UCC heat will take place at 2 pm in the Kane Building (1^st year teaching laboratories) on the day your team is selected to compete and the event will take approx. 2 hours (details to be confirmed upon acceptance into competition). A special prize giving ceremony will take place on Wednesday 25^th in the G18, Kane Building, UCC from 7-9pm.

Entry Details

As places for the UCC heat will be limited to 16 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 2017 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 9^th March 2018.

The finalists for the UCC heat will be notified by Wednesday 21^st March via email. All entries must be submitted via email to chemistry@ucc.ie

2018 Republic of Ireland Schools Analyst Heat Application Form

For more information on the overall competition, Click Here. 

Contact Details

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