As part of National Chemistry Week, high-school students from the Central Fraser Valley were invited to participate in the eighth annual chemistry lab skills contest held at the Abbotsford campus of the University College of the Fraser Valley on Saturday, October 18. With the recent opening of a third chemistry laboratory at UCFV, and financial support as a result of a successful application for a grant from the PromoScience program administered by the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the maximum number of participants was increased this year. This increase resulted in eleven high schools from the UCFV catchment area entering a record of seventeen four-person teams.

Each team completed seven experiments consisting of two quantitative determinations and five syntheses. The quantitative experiments involved determining the amount of calcium in a dietary supplement by two different methods, the first method making use of an ion-exchange column followed by a titration and the second method being a gravimetric determination involving the precipitation of calcium as the hydrated oxalate. The syntheses involved the preparation of some colourful complexes of cobalt, nickel, and chromium.

The overall winner was one of two teams from W.J. Mouat Secondary School, consisting of Robert McDougall, Bradley Roger, Andrew Field and Ezekiel Echon. Yale Secondary School, the winner for the last four years, placed second with the team of Brian Wong, Katie Newcombe, Rika Morrow, and Rebecca Graham. The team of Emily Glenn, Kuljit Dhaliwal, Ryan Dyck, and Jared Klassen, representing the Mennonite Educational Institute, was third. Members of the first-placed team each received $100 and their school received a copy of The Merck Index for use in its laboratory. Members of the second- and third-placed teams each received $50 and $25, respectively. Complimentary snacks, lunch, and a custom-designed t-shirt were provided for all participants and a number contestants won door prizes that had been donated by Fisher Scientific and VWR Scientific. The traditional post-contest chemistry magic show, presented by UCFV staff and students, was well received by the participants and their guests.

As in previous years, the event was co-ordinated by Dr. Arthur Last, MCIC, with the enthusiastic support of Aileen Ablog, Shawna Dyck, Shawn Millar, Jane Webb, and Gordon von Hollen and a number of UCFV student volunteers.

Photographs can be found on the UCFV Chemistry Department website.