The results of the first “Chung-ling Chemistry Innovation Contest ” for high school students held by the Department of Chemistry have been announced. The top two high schools in Taiwan, Taipei Municipal Chien-Kuo High School for Boys, and Taipei First Girl High School for Girls, respectively, won the first and second prize. The third place went to the Yun-lin Cheng-hsin High School, while five other high schools won the Best Works.

One of the judges of the contest, Professor Wang Wen-jwu, was pleased with all the performances. He described the two questions presented to the contestants as practical and innovative. The first question was to ask them to assemble batteries to be connected with a LED unit, so as to measure its current. The second question dealt with preserving books from disintegrating with time. Based on the degree of their creative solutions, the soundness of applied theories, and the completeness of the experiment documentation, judges decided on the winners.

225 students in 75 teams took part in the written test in the morning, from which 90 students in 30 teams were selected for the second stage of contest. At this stage, they had to put on lab coats and goggles to discuss ways of conducting their experiments creatively.

Most students were thrilled to be at Tamkang and found the contest very stimulating and challenging. Some of them had some hair-raising moments, such as Chung Hong-Jie form Ping Tung High School, who and his team-mates only worked out the solution 30 minutes before the end of the experiment. It was better late than never for them, as their result won one of the awards for Best Works. Apparently, their trip to Tamkang paid off, since they had taken a midnight train from southern Taiwan the night before to arrive at Tamkang in time for the contest. Those who did not win any award were still happy to be here to witness the well-equipped Chung-ling Chemistry Hall. The champions of the contests, students from Chien-Kuo , were proud of their own delivery, but admitted that some questions in the written test were rather tricky. They had to exercise great caution in order to give top performance. They were awarded with NT$ 30,000 of prize money, which may not amount to too much when divided among the four members. However, one of them, Ma Shan-der is not worried, as he would give his entire share to his mother.

Wang Bo-cheng, the Chair of the Department of Chemistry, sees this event as a successful PR exercise. Several high schools are already considering organizing science summer camps with them. He also proposed some improvement for any future event, for example, the assessment of the written test was too slow this time as it was not computerized. Therefore, a computerized assessment system will be installed in the future. (~ Ying-hsueh Hu )