Great Scot December 2017 GreatScot_152_Dec_Online | Page 40

News
Success
in major
Chemistry
quiz
Over 1600 schools and nearly 110,000
students across Australia, throughout Asia, the
Pacific and Europe competed in the 2017 Royal
Australian Chemical Institute National Chemistry
Quiz, held in early August. The quiz is a one-hour,
multiple choice competition. As usual, Scotch
boys figured prominently in the top awards.
Nine boys achieved Awards of Excellence,
placing them in the top one per cent in Australia
in the competition: Edward Buckland (who
answered all 30 questions correctly and was
awarded a tie pin), Jerry Luo, Patrick Miao,
Christopher Ong, Gehan Premaratne and Justin
Yang (all of Year 12); Christopher Chamberlain
and Tommy Wei (both of Year 11); and Kevin Wu
(Year 10).
For Year 12, there were 72 Scotch entries out
of a total of 1057 entries from Victoria. Six Scotch
boys received high distinctions (excellence), 11
received high distinctions (placed in the top 10
per cent in the competition) and 13 received
distinctions (placed in the next 15 per cent).
For Year 11, there were 104 Scotch entries
out of 1837 from Victoria. Two boys received high
distinctions (excellence), 15 boys received high
distinctions (placing them in the top 10 per cent)
and nine received distinctions (next 15 per cent).
For Year 10, there were 25 entries by Scotch
boys out of a total of 649 from Victoria. One
boy received a high distinction (excellence), nine
received high distinctions (placing them in the top
10 per cent), and five received distinctions (next
15 per cent).
DR JOHN JACKOWSKI – HEAD OF
CHEMISTRY
40
A practical introduction to
electron microscopy
The visit to witness electron microscopes and
other instruments in action at RMIT University,
has now become an important annual feature of
the Year 9 Science Challenge program. On 30
August, I accompanied seven boys from Year
9, along with Robyn Wood from the Science
department. Laboratory Manager, Dr Peter
Rummell, led the tour, and has indicated that this
visit can become an annual event.
The boys learned about the principles of
electron microscopy, watched the scanning
electron microscope (SEM) and transmission
electron microscope (TEM) in operation, and
even had the opportunity to drive a SEM,
collecting some amazing photos of fossils.
DR ATIT BHARGAVA – SCIENCE
AMBASSADOR
Great Scot Number 152 – December 2017