Holton-Arms' Level I and Level II Chemathon teams both competed at this year's 32nd Annual Chemathon on Saturday, April 30. Held at the University of Maryland, the regional chemistry competition welcomed schools from Maryland and the District of Columbia. Twenty-four Level I, made up of first-year chemistry students, and 21 Level II, or AP level, chemistry teams, entered the competition; Chemathon teams competed in 20 different events including lab activities and knowledge-testing games.
On-site team members Jayme Slotkin '18 (captain), Bonnie Akhavan '18, Isabelle Koff '18, Christine Padalino '18, Stephanie Jiang '18, Lexi Boo '18 and off-site team members Amber Batra '18, Anna Haskin '18, Audrey Bochi-Layec '18, Brijit Sangha '18, Jackie Hardie '18, Cayla Strong '18, Rayne Layton '18, Isabelle Ross '18, Reagan Leibovitz '18, Morgan Abdo '18, Julie Hirsch '18, Caroline Albright '18, Charlotte Butz '18, and Ava Weinreb '18 enthusiastically made up Holton's Level I team. Their stellar performance earned them a first place finish in the Level I overall standings.
The strong AP team consisted of on-site team members Yasmin Alamdeen '17 (captain), Lillian Baker, Alex Steelman, Ava Jundanian, Rebecca Chan, Gillian Hutter, and off-site team member Grace Tung '16. They earned fourth place overall in the competition.
Holton received the most individual event awards amongst all participating schools with a total of 14, including five first-place individual event awards in Reaction in Action level I, Viscoelastic Bounce Level I, Threaded Ion Level I, Make My Faraday Level II, and Threaded Ion Level II.
"It seems that the full adoption of inquiry-based labs this year has made our students savvier in their hand-on and 'minds-on' skills," said chemistry teacher and Chemathon mentor Xu Duan.
Congratulations to these outstanding student chemists!
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| On-site members of Holton's Chemathon teams smile for the camera. |
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| The Level I team carries out a titration experiment during the Chemathon. |