Colyton Grammar School students excel at Chemistry Olympiad

News - Apr 21

Recently, 47 students from Year 12 and 13 sat the Chemistry Olympiad paper, which is a two-hour written paper covering challenging areas of A Level Chemistry in novel contexts. The topics covered in the 2023 paper included electronegativity, rocket fuels, amino acid complexes, toxic chemicals present during vaping and cheese.   

Electronegativity is a timely topic because last year it was the 90th anniversary of Linus Pauling proposing the concept of electronegativity. The 2023 International Chemistry Olympiad was held in Switzerland, making a question on cheese obligatory, with students being quizzed on the conversation of lactose to lactic acid during fermentation in cheese manufacturing.  

We are delighted to say that we had the biggest number of award winners that Dr N Rorke can remember in her time at Colyton Grammar School with seven Year 12 students winning silver awards and three Year 13 students' winners of the gold award.  

For an overview of Colyton Grammar School's chemistry curriculum, visit here