Inter-House Science Quiz

How much calcium carbonate is there in an eggshell? This was the question posed at this year’s Inter-House Science Competition which was held during Alleyn’s Science Fortnight.

The competition, held at lunchtime on Wednesday 16 March, was organised and adjudicated by Chemistry teacher and Roper’s Housemaster Mr Paul Cochrane. Teams of Middle and Upper School chemists donned their lab coats and goggles to be the first to find the answer.

Mr Cochrane was impressed by the teamwork, “It was lovely to see the different years working together. They were really impressive as they knew nothing of the task until they turned the piece of paper over today.”

The winning team was determined by how fast they could produce the answer, with their results and calculations from the experiment, and how close their result was to the accepted value, a percentage mass of calcium carbonate of around 94%.

Each team performed diligently. Thrillingly, there was a “photo finish” with Dutton’s being the fastest and with a good percentage and Tulley’s slightly slower but with an even better percentage, so a tie was declared!

“Congratulations to the marvellous teams. They are wonderful chemists!”, enthused Mr Cochrane.