As every year, a Chemistry Olympics course leaded by Mr. Nowitzki was held in school year 2021/2022 at our school. Every second Friday, six enthusiastic and highly curious students met up in the Chemistry room for solving theoretical tasks and doing interesting experiments to find out more about the laws of nature that determine our everyday life.
For the first time since the outbreak of the Corona Pandemic, the Upper Austrian regional competition, for many Olympionics the highlight of the year, could take place in presence after it had to be carried out as an online competition in 2020 and 2021, especially the practical tasks were attracting after a long period of studying at home.
This year, it was considered to take place in Braunau from Tuesday, April 26th till Thursday, April 28th, 2022. That is why our school’s participants Florian Nowitzki (7a), Elias Leitinger (7b), Jonas Untersperger (7a) and Michael Himmelbauer (7a) took the train to Braunau Tuesday morning. After the arrival, they were picked up by a bus and were brought to their accommodation, the local boarding school. The same afternoon, they had the opportunity to listen to a highly interesting interactive presentation of the spokesman of AMAG, a local Aluminum factory, about the worldwide enterprise’s values and strategies to succeed. Subsequently, a guided tour that gave insights into the different steps of production to some of the buildings was offered to the group of 44 students.
The next morning after having breakfast, they were brought to the high school building where the competition was held. Within a working time of three hours, 20 pages of theoretical tasks had to be solved with the help of formula sheets, a calculator and of course the periodic table of elements. In it, the reaction equation of a coin made of Copper with nitric acid had to be examined as well as organic tasks about the structure of different molecules consisting of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen.
The second part, the practical experiments, was carried out in the afternoon, the ingredients of seven different liquids had to be worked out and the concentration of Zinc and Magnesium ions had to be calculated by investigating different reactions that cause a change of the liquid’s color inside the beaker when a given substance drops into the unknown one. In the evening, our school’s contestants enjoyed playing cards and discussing about the challenging, but fascinating exercises that required focusing and recalling all scientifical knowledge taught in the preparation courses throughout the entire school year.
On Thursday, a festive awarding ceremony including musical performances and speeches of political and economic representatives was held in Braunau’s event location. At the end of it, all participants got their well-deserved certificates as well as presents like a cup, pens, books and t-shirts. Florian Nowitzki (7a) won the seventh price, Elias Leitinger (7b) placed eighth, Jonas Untersperger (7a) became 13th, Michael Himmelbauer (7a) achieved the 14thplace.
written by Michael Himmelbauer