Two teams of Mars Area Middle School students competed in the 2019-2020 “You Be the Chemist” Regional Challenge, held March 7 at the school.

The Blue Team, members of which are eighth-graders Declan Abbey, Nameer Dheen and Mitchell Kulfan; and seventh-grader Carson Mahan, earned first place. The Gold Team, made up of eighth-graders Reva Kalbhor, Vivek Dadi, Adam McElhinny and Aidan Teboul, took second place.

As the winner of the competition, the Blue Team is now required to produce video exploring the role of chemistry in the community. A panel of judges will review all video entries to determine those teams that will advance to the National “You Be The Chemist” Challenge, to be held June 15-16 at the Chemical Education Foundation (CEF) STEM Summit (Houston, Texas).

CEF and BASF Corporation sponsor the regional “You Be the Chemist” Challenge. The question-and-answer competition engages students (Grades 5-8) in learning important chemistry concepts, historical discoveries and safety awareness.

For more information, visit www.chemed.org/programs/challenge/.