Middle school students from the Berks County area demonstrated their knowledge of chemistry concepts, important discoveries, and chemical safety awareness on March 17 at the local level of a national chemistry competition of the You Be The Chemist Challenge, an academic question-and-answer competition created by the Chemical Educational Foundation. The Challenge competition aims to engage grade 5-8 students in chemistry through a dynamic event that partners industry members with schools and organizations in the communities in which they operate.
The local-level portion of the Challenge was once again sponsored by leading chemical distributor Brenntag North America, Inc. and was held at Penn State Berks Campus, Reading. Students from across Berks County participated, totaling 45 students from 10 schools.
The top five students from the Berks County Local Challenge are First Place – Colby Snyder, Wilson West Middle School; Second Place – Aaron Xie, Wilson Southern Middle School; Third Place – Sindura Sridhar, Cornwall Terrace Elementary School; Fourth Place – Aryan Kalidindi, Wilson West Middle School and Alternate – Grace Long, Hamburg Middle School.
The top four students advance to the Pennsylvania State Challenge on April 14 at Penn State University, Main Campus. The winner of the state competition will move on to compete in the National Challenge on June 18, in Washington, DC.
