'Let the games begin!'
Area schools crown local 'Challenge' winners
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| Hannah Clubb (second place), Eden Dennis (first place) and Truman Daggett (third place), all seventh-graderes, represented Mazon-Verona-Kinsman Middle School in the "You Be the Chemist Challenge." (Photo submitted) |
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Eight area middle schools have just declared their winners in the Illinois Valley Challenge Site’s 2012 “You Be the Chemist Challenge.”
Each school's first-place winner and runner-up will now advance to the regional competition on Monday, Feb. 13, at Seneca Elementary School — South Campus, making a total of 16 contestants vying for winner status. The contest, a Scholastic Bowl-style competition with a scientific/chemical twist, is a national contest with 19 states competing nationally this year.
Illinois has seven challenge sites on its own, and the top three winners from each site will compete in the state competition in DesPlaines on April 3. Only one winner from Illinois will advance to the national contest on June 25 in Philadelphia.
New at the regional this year will be featured speaker Mark Biel, executive director of the Chemical Industry Council of Illinois, who will give a short talk about careers in chemistry and the business of chemistry in Illinois. Biel will be available to talk with students and families starting at 5 p.m., during which a light buffet will be served. The competition will begin at 6 p.m. in the school library.
Also new this year is that the two competing counties, Grundy and LaSalle, are competing separately and together. The Illinois Valley Challenge Site, the pilot group for this national competition, had always combined counties. Now, with the option of splitting the site, three students from each will advance to the state competition, so the odds are doubled for a student from this area to win.
Two of last year's students who went onto the state contest, namely Aaron Kamke from Utica and Conrad Goffinet from Minooka, are back this year competing at the regional for that honor,
This year is a great year for prizes thanks to the continued sponsorship of eight local companies. The students first compete at their schools, then the winners and runners-up have a chance to win at the regional competition. Each school’s winner will receive a Compaq laptop computer and each school’s second-place winner will receive a $50 gift card to Best Buy toward electronics of their choice.
At the regional, the winner for each county will be declared and win a trophy. Other regional prizes will be announced. The school of the regional winner will win $500 for its school science program.
With the contest now in its eighth year, Illinois Valley Coordinator Patricia Neff says it’s great to see students return to compete year after year, most on a volunteer basis. The competition really heats up at the state level, which now boasts seven sites, most in the Chicagoland region. Neff hires a bus to take contestants and fans to the state contest so they’ll have the largest cheering section.
The local contest is very successful due to the teachers and the continued support of local sponsors Air Products & Chemicals, AkzoNobel Surface Chemistry, Aux Sable Liquids, Carus Corporation, Exelon-Dresden Station, Flint Hills Resources, LyondellBasell Industries, and PQ Corporation.
The state sponsor is the Illinois Chemical Education Foundation (a foundation within the Chemical Industry Council of Illinois), and the national organizers, from whom all the study, testing, and contest materials come from, is the Chemical Educational Foundation (CEF) of Arlington, VA. CEF’s website has many free ideas, lesson plans and information for teachers and students alike.
For more information about what they can offer and about the national contest, visit www.chemed.org. For more information on the local contest, contact Patricia Neff at (815) 634-2370.
The winners of the 8th annual Illinois Valley Challenge Regional Site School Level Contests are:
Coal City Middle School — (Coordinator: Ms. Elaine DiGiusto)
1st Place — Joey Rivera (8th)
2nd Place — Nick Micetich (8th)
Alternate — Hunter Andrjeski (7th)
Mazon-Verona-Kinsman Middle School — (Teacher: Ms. Darcy Welsh)
1st Place — Eden Dennis (7th)
2nd Place — Hannah Clubb (7th)
Alternate — Truman Daggett (7th)
Minooka Junior High — (Coordinator: Ms. Sally Readle)
1st Place — Conrad Goffinet (8th)
2nd Place — Lauren Gallcher (8th)
Alternate — Ali Motsch (8th) & Mackenzie Harman(7th) — Tied
Saratoga Middle School (Morris) — (Teacher: Ms. Lisa Garrison)
1st Place — Jared Roth (7th)
2nd Place — Hernan Gutierrez (8th)
Alternate — Joey Lyle (6th)
Oglesby Washington Junior High — (Teacher: Mr. Glen Flodstrom)
1st Place — Bethany Black (8th)
2nd Place — Kaitlyn Ernst (8th)
Alternate — Felicia Gruenwald (8th)
Parkside Junior High (Peru) – (Teacher Ms. Alison Bryant)
1st Place — Jakob Selquist (8th)
2nd Place — Gina Henkel (7th)
Alternate — Alexa Dawson (6th)
Seneca Middle School – (Teacher: Mr. Terry Maxwell)
1st Place — Lyle Marshall (8th)
2nd Place — Grant Granby (7th)
Alternate — Bobby Newirk (8th)
Waltham Elementary (Utica) – (Teacher: Ms. Jana Berman)
1st Place — Aaron Kamke (8th)
2nd Place — Olivia Graham (8th)
Alternate — Kendra Yade (8th)
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