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The Chemistry Olympiad program in Southeast Michigan.
The United States National Chemistry Olympiad (USNCO) is a program for high school chemistry students. The USNCO is sponsored nationally by the American Chemical Society (ACS) and organized locally by the Detroit Section of the ACS. The Detroit Section has participated in the USNCO program since 1985. Students from the nine-county area served by the Detroit Section are eligible to participate.
The ultimate objective of the USNCO is the selection of the four members of the United States team for the International Chemistry Olympiad (IChO) to be held virtually this year. The selection process begins with the Local Section exam in March. In southeast Michigan the top ten students on the Local Section exam (after adjusting for the national rules) are named as Nominees of the Detroit Section. The Nominees and nine Runners-up will receive cash prizes of $150 and $75 respectively. Along with approximately eight hundred students nationwide the Nominees will sit for the (virtual) National Exam in late April. The top twenty on the National Exam will be invited to the Olympiad Study Camp at the University of Maryland. The four members of the US team are then chosen after ten intense and grueling days at the Study Camp.
Online Registration for the Detroit Local Section Exam for the USNCO.
The Local Section exam for the 2023 Chemistry Olympiad will be administered on Thursday, March 23. Online registration will open on January 9, 2023. There is a limit of twenty-five students per school on the Local Section exam. High school teachers click HERE to register up to fifteen students and ten alternates for the 2023 USNCO Detroit Local Section Exam. (Alternates will be ineligible to sit for the National Exam or to win cash prizes.) If you would prefer to register by paper, you may download a PRINTABLE REGISTRATION FORM. Confirmation will be sent out by email when the registration materials have been received. Registrations will be accepted until Monday, March 13.
Format of the Local Section Exam. Nominees will be selected on the basis of their scores on the ACS-designed Local section exam. The Local Section exam will be administered remotely. Students will complete the exam via the ACS exam portal on Thursday, March 23. Prior to taking the exam students must have completed the online ACS training session. The exam itself comprises sixty multiple choice questions, six on each of ten major topics. The exam will have a one hundred ten minute (note change) time limit. Ties in the selection of Nominees and Runners-up will broken by performance on ten randomly selected questions.
It will be responsibility of the teacher to secure the local testing site and to arrange for proctoring. Security of the exams must be the highest priority.
Who should participate? All high school chemistry students are invited to attend, but persons who have completed or are currently enrolled in an AP Chemistry class will be the best prepared for the Local Section Exam.
Is there a cost to participate? There is no fee to participate in the Local Section Exam for the Chemistry Olympiad. Students should bring their own calculators (in conformance with rules of the competition) and scrap paper. Each participant will receive a certificate and an Olympiad pin.
National and Local Rules for the Chemistry Olympiad Note that the National Rules supersede the Local Section Rules.
2023 Olympiad Schedule of Events
Late December. Registration materials mailed to teachers. If you are not on the SEMCTO mailing list, contact Dr. Mark DeCamp at mdecamp@umich.edu and materials will be sent to you.
Monday, January 9. Online registration opens
Friday, March 10. Registration Deadline
Thursday, March 23. The 2023 Detroit Local Section Examination The Detroit Local Section Examination will be administered online between 3:00 to 5:30 pm (starting time at teacher's discretion). It will be the responsibility of the teachers to ensure the security of the exams.
Thursday, April 20. The National Exam Parts I, II and III of the National Exam will be administered in person at the University of Michigan-Dearborn starting at noon.
Early May. Study Camp participants identified.
July 16. 55th International Chemistry Olympiad begins in Switzerland.
Downloadable copies of generic Local Section exams (LSE) and past National exams can be accessed at ACS USNCO website.
2022 Olympiad Nominees, Runners-up, and participating schools One hundred seventeen students from sixteen schools completed the Local Section Exam last March. The average on the 2022 exam in Detroit was 29.4 (out of 60) right, with a high score of 57. Click HERE for a listing of the Nominees, Runners-up and participating schools on the 2022 Detroit Section Chemistry Olympiad. Also available is a histogram showing the distribution of scores on the Local Section Exam.
Detroit Section USNCO Archives
Detroit representatives at the USNCO Study Camp, 1985 - 2022 The Detroit Section has participated in the USNCO program since 1985. For twenty-five of the past thirty-eight years Detroit has sent at least one student to the Study Camp at the Air Force Academy. Last year Jiaxu Liu of Detroit Country Day School attended the Study Camp. In 2019 Yajvan Ravan (Churchill High School) represented the Detroit Section at the Study Camp. At the conclusion of the Study Camp Yajvan was chosen for the US team and he ultimately earned a gold medal at International Chemistry Olympiad in Paris! A complete list of all Study Camp participants from the Detroit Section can be found HERE.
Old essay questions In selecting Nominees and Runners-up in Detroit, ties were formerly broken by means of a free response question. The topic of the essay question is usually timely. The essay questions from the most recent Detroit Local Section Exams are collected HERE.
Additional Information
Additional information about the Chemistry Olympiad program can be found at the USNCO National Website.
Photo Gallery from the 2022 National Exam Part II and Lab Practical
L: National Exam, Part II R: Sonnet Xu (Troy H.S.) works on Part II
Nominees working feverishly on the lab problems
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