SCIENCE

RACI TITRATION COMPETITIONS

The Royal Australian Chemical Institute (RACI) Titration competitions are designed to encourage those students who enjoy Chemistry, particularly its practical side, to develop their skills and to reward those who attain a high level of proficiency.

All secondary schools are invited to compete in their local state-based competition. Entrants compete in teams of three.

In the competition, each team performs a simple acid-base titration exercise. Each team standardises a sodium hydroxide (NaOH) solution against a supplied hydrochloric acid (HCl) solution and then are to standardise three (3) acetic acid solutions with the sodium hydroxide solution.

Judging is on the basis of the values each team reports for the titres and concentrations of the NaOH and acetic acid solutions. Teams are ranked on how close they get to the actual concentration.

More students participated in this years Titration challenge than in previous years.

Fifteen Lilydale High School students, across Years 10 to 12 were willing to give up their lunchtime to try and find a specific endpoint of when a solution becomes neutral.

Of the 15 participants, there were 3 students that were awarded medals, as their data was 5% out of the correct value. Congratulations to Paige Anderson, Emily Reefman and Harry Shanley.

As a group overall, the school was ranked 63rd out of 251 teams that participated in the challenge state wide. An excellent effort by all.