|
CANADIAN
STUDENTS SHOW THEIR KNOWLEDGE
Now's the time to start honing your chemistry skills and studying your
textbooks for the next National High School Chemistry Exam (NHSCE) and
Canadian Chemistry Olympiad (CCO) selection exam. The exam is held each
spring, and it is open to all high school students in Canada. Competition
will be demanding! The test is designed by The Chemical Institute of Canada
(CIC) and the Canadian Chemistry Olympiad with input from district
coordinators at universities and colleges across the country. The NHSCE is
comprised of two parts, offered in French and English:
A. multiple choice questions (60 minutes)
B. essay question- two out of three must be answered (90 minutes)
The CCO Olympiad section of the test also includes two parts:
A. same multiple choice questions as above
C. free response questions (90 minutes)
Students can choose to write either of the competitions, or both (with a
time limit of 4 hours).
The national winner of the NHSCE receives a prize of $800. Cash awards are
also given to five other regional winners as well as second and third place
regional competitors.
The 2001
International Olympiad was held in Mumbai, India. Congratulations to
the members of this team, each one of which received a bronze medal.; Arya
Ghadimi ( ON ), Bryony Lau ( AB ), Gerald Li ( BC ) and Eric Zhu ( ON ).
Gordon Bates and Jean Bouffard were the team leaders who took care of the
students on their way to and back from the International Olympiads, and who
worked hard on location in various duties connected with the competition.
The full results for all countries are posted at
www.hbcse.tifr.res.in/icho
Next year's Canadian Olympiad team will consist of four students chosen
from those who obtain the best results in Parts A and C of the 2002 exam.
This team will get an all-expenses-paid trip to the International Olympiad
in Grônigen, Netherlands in July 2002.
Here are some sample questions from last year's NHSCE exam for you to try
out.
|
1. A
mass of 4.021 g of NaOH is dissolved and made up to 1 litre of solution
with water. 10.00 mL of this solution is pipetted into a
flask and titrated with 0.050 M HCl solution from a burette. A volume
of 19.75 mL of acid had been used at the endpoint. This discrepant
result could be due to: |
|
A.
the NaOH having absorbed CO2 from the air after its mass was
measured |
|
B.
the NaOH having absorbed H2O
from the air after its mass was measured |
|
C.
the pipette having been rinsed with water instead of NaOH |
|
D.
the flask having been rinsed with NaOH instead of water |
|
E.
the burette having been rinsed with water instead of HCl |
|
2. A
20.0 g sample of an organic compound was found to give 27.5 g of carbon
dioxide on combustion. The compound could
be: |
|
A.
CH3OH |
|
B.
CH3CHO |
|
C.
CH3OCH3 |
|
D.
CH3CO2H |
|
E.
CH3COCH3 |
|
|
3.
Which of the following formulae can represent a pair of geometric (cis-trans)
isomers? |
|
A.
CI2CCH |
|
B.
HCICCH2 |
|
C.
HCICCHCI |
|
D.
HCI2CCH2CI |
|
E.
HCI2CCHCI2 |
|
|
|
Answers
1. C 2. A
3. C |
If you are
interested in participating in the NHSCE (now the Canadian Chemistry
Contest) or Olympiad, ask your chemistry teacher to
register you. For more practice questions and previous exams, you can try:
www.chemistry.ca/ccc |
