Scottish Heat School's Analyst Competition

On Monday 8th March a crack team consisting of our very best sixth form Chemists, Christian Bosselmann, Chris Hastings and Alice Strang Steel attended the Scottish Heat of the Royal Society of Chemistry's Schools Chemistry Analyst Competition at Heriott-Watt University. Pitted against some 16 other schools from all over Scotland, the competition was rife and the Glenalmond team were keen to improve on last year's performance.

The first experiment involved the use of a UV/V spectrometer to determine the concentration of orthophosphate in a sample of field run-off. The questions in this section were difficult and unrelated to the topic, but Christian came up trumps completing the questions almost single-handedly. In the second experiment they determined the amount of the active ingredient in aspirin tablets. This was relatively straight forward and the group finished with accurate results and time to spare. The final experiment was tricky, due to the time pressure involved, as they carried out two titrations to calculate the mass of vitamin C in a vitamin C tablet.

At the conclusion of the day the team were surprised and excited to find that they had won the competition and returned to Glenalmond with a large trophy, £30 worth of book vouchers each and plans for the National competition in June.

Mr Armitage, the Head of Chemistry, would like to thank all the pupils for their enthusiasm and support throughout the day.