Schools
Middletown Chemistry Students are Science Olympiads
For the seventh time in eight years, the Middletown High School chemistry team won first place in the annual Regional Chemistry Olympiad Competition held at the University of Connecticut on March 21.
This post was written by James Bransfield and posted by Cassandra Day.
For the seventh time in eight years, the Middletown High School chemistry team won first place in the annual Regional Chemistry Olympiad Competition held at the University of Connecticut on March 21.
Middletown's team of Samantha Angle, Hannah Breton, Drew Cietek, Alexander Pandolfe, Terry Nguyen, Haley Rugh, Ryan Vechitto and Lily Zhao came in first among a field of 18 schools.
"The students take a 60 question multiple-choice exam," said MHS chemistry teacher Roberta Downer, who has taught at the high school since 2000. "The top four scores are combined and the school with the highest combined score is named the winner."
Downer said that which students were the top four scorers won't be known until the end of May.
"I'm very proud of my students," said Downer. "They work hard and attend after school practices to complete work not covered in the curriculum to prepare for the exam. In the past, students have met over vacation time to practice. They go above and beyond what is reasonably expected."
Downer's team has had notable success in past years. In 2007, John Hawley scored the highest in the state on the exam, then went on to score highest in the second round which is open to the top 29 scorers. This is an open-ended question and lab assessment. Hawley was the top scorer in both Connecticut and Massachusetts. He graduated from Brown and is currently pursing a Masters Degree in mathematics at the University of Michigan.
Last year, Randy Hamchand of MHS finished among the top 29 and is currently at UConn studying biochemistry.
