Hamilton Boys’ High make their mark at chemistry challenge

Hamilton Boys’ High make their mark at Waikato chemistry challenge for the fourth year in a row

A Hamilton Boys’ High School team was awarded first place at the annual NZIC Analytical Chemistry Competition for the fourth year in a row.

The recent University of Waikato event challenged 88 enthusiastic Year 13 students to spend a day in the University’s chemistry laboratories to solve an analytical chemistry problem put forward to them.

Any Secondary School from the greater Waikato region was able to enter a team of four into the competition, with some schools entering up to two teams. This was the fourth year running that a Hamilton Boys’ High School team has won first place in the competition, with the school’s other team placing third.

The task for this year’s competition was to analyse the individual levels of barium and chloride ions in a sample of barium chloride and to use these values to determine how many water molecules were associated with each barium chloride molecule.

“One pair from each of the teams of four used a gravimetric procedure to find the barium ion content, while the other half of the team used a volumetric method to find the chloride ion level,” says competition judge and key organiser, Associate Professor Michèle Prinsep.

First place went to Lachlan Cate, Ben Lambourne, Cameron Paul and Cameron Salisbury of Hamilton Boys’ High School with another team from the school, Lucas Clarke, Matthew Handford, Tai Lohrer and Isaac Poole in third place. Second place was awarded to Bayley Coster, Emma Godden, Jada Mataroa, and Grace Wright from Tauranga Girls’ College, while teams from Waikato Diocesan School for Girls and Pukekohe College took out fourth and fifth places respectively.

“This year there was a clear winner but the next four teams were very close and it was difficult to separate them. They all should be very proud of their efforts” says Associate Professor Prinsep.

Twenty-two teams of four students from the Waikato/Bay of Plenty regions entered in this year’s competition. All students were treated to lunch sponsored by the Waikato branch of the New Zealand Institute of Chemistry (NZIC), at the University’s halls of residence. The winning team received $200 from sponsor Hill Laboratories and a trophy, with prize money also awarded to all other place-getters.

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