Outreach contests

Chem dates

Upcoming events in Winter and Spring 2020

To have your program listed, email Kathy Jackson at: kjackson@uwaterloo.ca Author: Chem 13 News, Chemistry Department, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario

Tough questions series – 2006 CHEM 13 NEWS Exam

(This is a reprint from the May 2007 issue of Chem 13 News, page 16.) Author: Carey Bissonnette, CHEM 13 NEWS, Chemistry Department, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario

Tough questions series – 2007 CHEM 13 NEWS Exam

(This is a reprint from the September 2007 issue of Chem 13 News, pages 4-5.) Author: Carey Bissonnette, CHEM 13 NEWS Exam, Chemistry Department, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario

Tough questions series – 2008 CHEM 13 NEWS Exam

(This is a reprint from the October 2008 issue of Chem 13 News, pages 4-5.) Author: Carey Bissonnette, CHEM 13 NEWS Exam, Chemistry Department, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario

Tough questions series – 2009 CHEM 13 NEWS Exam

(This is a reprint from the September 2009 issue of Chem 13 News, pages 10-11.) Questions #12 and #24 from the 2009 CHEM 13 NEWS Exam challenged most students and quite a few teachers! Let’s focus first on question #12, which is reproduced below.  Author: Carey Bissonnette, CHEM 13 NEWS Exam coordinator, Chemistry Department, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario

Tough question series – 2010 CHEM 13 NEWS Exam

(This is a reprint from the March 2011 issue of Chem 13 News, pages 4-5.) Question #20 from the 2010 CHEM 13 NEWS Exam was, statistically speaking, the question that best discriminated between the “better” students and the “weaker” students. Author: Carey Bissonnette, CHEM 13 NEWS Exam coordinator, Chemistry Department, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario

Tough questions series – 2011 CHEM 13 NEWS Exam

(This is a reprint from the December 2011 and January 2012 issue of Chem 13 News, page 11.) The subject of this article is question #8 from the 2011 CHEM 13 NEWS Exam. Only 16% of students answered the question correctly and, more surprisingly, 62% of students did not answer it at all. Author: Carey Bissonnette, CHEM 13 NEWS Exam coordinator, Chemistry Department, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario

Tough question series – 2012 CHEM 13 NEWS Exam

(This is a reprint from the March 2013 issue of Chem 13 News, pages 6-7.) The subject of this article is question #39 from the 2012 CHEM 13 NEWS Exam. Only 22% of students answered the question correctly and 52% of students did not answer it all. Author: Carey Bissonnette, CHEM 13 NEWS Exam coordinator, Chemistry Department, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario

Tough questions series – 2013 CHEM 13 NEWS exam

(This is a reprint from the November 2013 issue of Chem 13 News, pages 3-4.) This article focuses on a couple of questions from the 2013 CHEM 13 NEWS Exam. The first is question #9, which is reproduced below. Almost all students responded (94%), with 34% of them choosing the correct response (B), and about the same percentage (32%) choosing answer C. This question was, from a statistical perspective, among those that best discriminated between the “stronger” students and the “weaker” students.

Tough questions series – 2014 CHEM 13 NEWS Exam

(This is a reprint from the February 2015 issue of Chem 13 News, pages 14-15.) This article focuses on question #10 from the 2014 CHEM 13 News Exam, which is reproduced below. The number below each response is the percentage of students selecting that response. The correct answer is E. Author: Carey Bissonnette, CHEM 13 NEWS Exam Coordinator, Chemistry Department, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario

2019 Chem 13 News and Avogadro Exam winners

The 2019 University of Waterloo Chem 13 News and Avogadro exams were written online by a combined 6,948 grade 11 and 12 student worldwide. Author: Laura Ingram, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario

2019 Chem 13 News and Avogadro Exams

Do you have a 75-minute period to challenge your students chemically? Give them the experience of writing the Chem 13 News Exam or Avogadro Exam! The Chem 13 News Exam will be written on Thursday, May 9, 2019, and is designed for senior students in their second high school chemistry course.

Timeline update

At the time of this printing, 18 countries have applied to participate along with all the Canadian provinces and numerous US states. We have more applications than elements! If you have applied for an element you should be hearing from us by email in the next few weeks!

Famous scientists puzzle

Name and then match the statements below with the scientist’s photo

Canadian Crystal Growing Competition

The Chemical Institute of Canada (CIC) National Crystal Growing Competition is a fun, hands-on experience as well as an exciting opportunity. Schools are provided with materials and instructions on how to grow crystals and the objective is to grow the biggest and highest quality single crystal.

2018 Chem 13 News and Avogadro exam winners

Yashan Chelliahpilla, from Glenforest Secondary School in Mississauga (Ontario), scored a near perfect 39 out of 40 on the 2018 Chem 13 News Exam and ranked 2nd out of the 2198 students worldwide who wrote this year’s exam. Yashan is shown alongside his teacher Samuel Diljohn holding his elemental tile, featuring erbium (element 68) to commemorate the year (1968) in which the first issue of the Chem 13 News magazine was published.

A coded message

Are you able to translate this coded message?

The easiest and the toughest questions in 2017 CCC

Chemistry competitions can help students build their confidence and skills in chemistry and critical thinking. The Chemical Institute of Canada hopes that chemistry teachers across Canada will support their students in enrolling in the Canadian Chemistry Contest (CCC) and/or the Canadian Chemistry Olympiad contest (CCO).

Philosophy of education

Solve the following cryptogram by determining which actual letter is represented by the letter used in these six statements. They express my philosophy of education.

Avogadro Exam 1988: Part 4

To celebrate the 30th year of the Avogadro Exam we are reprinting the last ten questions from the first exam held in May 1988. The exam was, and is, aimed at grade 11 chemistry students.

2016 Canadian Chemistry Contest: Worst discriminator

Students expect contests to have tough questions. The Canadian Chemistry Contest (CCC) aims to promote national excellence in chemistry at the high school level.

New Elements Contest

The deadline to submit designs for the newly named elements is fast approaching...

Avogadro Exam 1988: Part 3

To celebrate the 30th year of the Avogadro Exam we are reprinting questions from the first exam in 1988 in this and upcoming issues. The exam was, and is, aimed at grade 11 chemistry students.

#clickbaitchem

In the November issue, we asked readers to send in #clickbait for chemistry curriculum topics.

Avogadro Exam 1988: Part 2

To celebrate the 30th year of the Avogadro Exam we are reprinting questions from the first exam in 1988 in this and upcoming issues. The exam was, and is, aimed at grade 11 chemistry students.

2016 Canadian Chemistry Contest: Best discriminators

The Canadian Chemistry Contest (CCC) consists of two parts: for Part A, students must answer 25 multiple choice questions and for Part B, students must write two essays from among three topics. It is designed to challenge top chemistry students in Canada

VSEPR, the easy way

The basic idea is that in any Lewis structure...

2016 Chem 13 News and Avogadro Exams

Do you have a 75-minute period to challenge your students chemically? Give them the experience of writing the Chem 13 News Exam or Avogadro Exam! Both exams have 40 multiple-choice questions.

Canadian Chemistry Contest for high school and cégep students

Do you have one or more students who excel in your chemistry class and would enjoy a challenge? Have these students participate in The Canadian Chemistry Contest (CCC). Save April 11 for the 2016 edition of CCC.

The Question

Joseph Priestley discovered sweet-smelling, colourless laughing gas, nitrous oxide (N2O), in 1763. N2O has been widely used as an anesthetic for medical and dental applications. Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is a toxic reddish brown gas that is the major component of smog.

Winning crystals

2014 Best Overall Crystals for Chemical Institute of Canada National Crystal Growing Competition. Cupric sulfate pentahydrate (bluestone) was used.

2015 Chem 13 News and Avogadro prizes

This year the top 200 students in the Chem 13 News exam and the Avogadro Exam received a periodic table tile plaque for Outstanding Achievement. We asked winners to upload photos to our online gallery of winners.

Tough question from the 2014 CHEM 13 NEWS Exam

This article focuses on question #10 from the 2014 CHEM 13 News Exam, which is reproduced below. The number below each response is the percentage of students selecting that response. The correct answer is E.

Re: Why are these tough questions?

In the September 2014 issue, we asked readers for their feedback on five items from last year’s CHEM 13 NEWS Exam. Based on item analysis these questions were considered good discriminators between strong and weak students. Here are some of your responses.

Canadian Chemistry Contest for high school and cégep students

Do you have students who excel in your chemistry class and would enjoy a challenge? Have these students participate in the Canadian Chemistry Contest (CCC). Save April 13 for the 2015 edition of CCC. Watch for more information in future issues of Chem 13 News.

Canada’s National Crystal Growing competition

Let this be the year you take the challenge of having your students grow crystals! The National Crystal Growing Competition is a fun, hands-on experience as well as an exciting competition.

Why are these tough questions?

Each year after the dust has settled, Carey Bissonnette at the University of Waterloo reviews the CHEM 13 NEWS Exam statistics. As part of an item analysis, a point-biserial correlation coefficient is calculated for each of the 40 exam items (questions). Basically, this is the correlation that quantifies the relationship between how students do on each individual item versus the overall exam.

A Chemistry Olympiad question in Canadian context

Our feeling is that most of us who were drawn to careers in chemistry education encountered a great storyteller among our teachers. We further suspect that one foundation of great teaching is great storytelling — or perhaps chemistry education draws in those with a passion for stories?

Canada nabs triple bronze

The Canadian high school team at the 45th International Chemistry Olympiad in Moscow, Russia had an outstanding showing at this year’s annual event. All four team members received awards.

Tough questions from 2013 CHEM 13 NEWS exam

This article focuses on a couple of questions from the 2013 CHEM 13 NEWS Exam. The first is question #9, which is reproduced below. Almost all students responded (94%), with 34% of them choosing the correct response (B), and about the same percentage (32%) choosing answer C.

The Canadian Chemistry Contest — examples of questions

If you have a student who really likes chemistry and excels in your class, you may want to know more about the kind of questions asked in our national competition. This article presents four examples of questions that were given in part A (multiple choice) and part B (essay-type) of the 2012 Canadian Chemistry Contest (CCC).

An olympiad question about antibiotics

This article presents the organic chemistry question and solution from the 2012 Canadian Chemistry Contest (CCC) Part C paper. Students competing in the Canadian Chemistry Olympiad (CCO) program are required to write Parts A and C of the CCC each year.