Dear Chemistry Teacher,
The date for the 35th annual Chemathon is Saturday, April 27, 2019.
The Chemathon is an annual chemistry competition for high school chemistry students in Maryland and the District of Columbia. The Chemathon competition is organized by a committee of area high school chemistry teachers and chemists, and is hosted by the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Maryland College Park.
The Chemathon, again, will be running on Maryland Day. Participants have the opportunity to see a lot of what the University of Maryland has to offer while the judges tally the results.
This year the theme for the Chemistry Signs is “Chemistry of the Atmosphere”. The official thread for Threaded Ions is Banana Peel: Coats and Clark Color Number 7240. Teams can register and find event details on the Chemathon web site at http://www2.chem.umd.edu/chemathon/.
When getting ready for the April event please remember that only 6 students can participate on a team in the Chemathon on each level. Please do not bring more than 6 students per level. You can bring up to 6 students on Level I and up to a separate 6 students for Level II. If you are bringing a Level I and a Level II team, please copy the enclosed team roster form and bring both completed forms with you on April 27th. It significantly speeds up the registration process when you bring all forms filled out prior to your arrival.
Level I: For students who have not taken and are not currently taking AP Chemistry or IB Chemistry, and have not previously participated in Chemathon. Students can only be on the level I team once.
Level II: For students at who have taken or are currently AP Chemistry and/or IB Chemistry as well as previous contestants.
In order to encourage problem solving, again this year we will have a Mystery Event. The event could involve solving a problem in colorimetry, thermodynamics, gas laws, stoichiometry, and physical and/or chemical properties. This event is designed to test “problem solving using first principles”. All necessary materials will be provided by the organizing Committee and teams may not utilize anything other than the equipment/chemicals/etc. provided. It will be a Lab event. That means there will be 5 lab events and only 3 paper-pencil events. Teams will need to bring Safety equipment for at least 6 students, since two lab events will be running concurrently.
This year again we will have a spirit award. Encourage your students to safely show their school and Chemistry spirit. The judges will be watching.
Rule Adjustments/Clarifications:
- For Make my [Fara]day, we understand getting 6V lantern batteries is becoming more difficult. So we will allow any combination of dry cell batteries (AAA, AA, C, or D) not to exceed 6V. A single dry cell battery has a voltage of 1.5V. You can connect up to 4 AAA-D batteries in series and use that in place of the 6V Lantern battery. Power supplies are still not allowed for this event.
- For Travelling Electrons, we have found that 6.0% NaOCl bleach is becoming difficult to purchase. For the Chemathon we will be purchasing the concentrated 8.25% NaOCl bleach and then diluting it to be between 5-7%. The diluted bleach will be tested by the Chemathon committee against a Primary standard in order to get the actual concentration. Your teams should expect ~6% NaOCl and should practice accordingly.
We anticipate being very close to our capacity for the Chemathon. The last few years we have come very close to having to turn away teams so we strongly suggest registering early. Teams that register after we reach capacity will be placed on a waiting list. We look forward to seeing you and all of your spirited students on April 27th.
Sincerely,
Buck Ferrin
For the Chemathon Coordinating Committee