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March 24, 2009

Middle school students participate in chemistry contest

Derrick Miller

While chemistry is often a subject studied in high school and college, a group of area middle school students proved chemistry isn’t just for those who have progressed beyond the eighth grade.

Six students from around Stephens County participated in the regional You Be the Chemist competition Monday in the Red River Technology Center. When the contest ended, seventh-grader Cody Crow of Comanche Middle School was named the winner.

“I’m glad I had the opportunity to come and do this,” Crow said.

The competition was done in three rounds with employees from Halliburton keeping track of the number of correct answers the students provided for the questions. The questions and possible answers were projected onto a screen.

Round 1 featured 12 questions. For each question, 30 second was allowed for the students to answer the multiple choice questions. To provide their answers, the students held up cards with the corresponding letter to the answer choices under the questions.

The difficulty of the questions increased between the rounds. Round 1 questions included “Where are elections located?” and “What is the name for the larger unit formed when two or more atoms are combined?”

In Round 2, the number of questions was reduced to 10. A student was also eliminated entering into the round.

The five remaining students continued the same question-and-answer format.

“What is the name for a negatively charged ion?” “What is the ratio of hydrogen to oxygen atoms in water?” These were just two of the questions asked in the second round.

Round 3 reduced the number of students to two. These students were Crow and Kevin Roddy, a seventh-grader at Duncan Middle School. Roddy was first runner-up in last year’s competition.

The questions did become more difficult, but both Crow and Roddy were able to answer the majority of the questions correctly. A sample of a Round 3 question is “Which of the following is a noble gas?”

At the end of the round, Crow bested Roddy by one point. Crow answered eight questions correctly, while Roddy got seven.

The other participants in the regional competition were Hayden Poff of Comanche, Sam Allen of Duncan, and Alyssa George and Dalton Balentine of Empire.

Poff and Allen tied for third place. Along with Crow and Roddy, they will be participating in the state-level contest. The state competition will be April 25 in Oklahoma City.

Following state will be the annual national contest in Pennsylvania. Last year’s regional/state winner, Andy Stewart of Duncan, participated in the national contest.

While the regional competition only included six students, the top two chemistry students from each school advanced to the regional competition.

Crow said he felt confident with many of his answers and wasn’t surprised with how well he did because he spent a lot of time studying.

“We had all of spring Break with no classes,” Crow said. “I spent the entire time studying.

“Most of the questions, I had no doubt I would get them correct.”

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