LDSS trio wins national competition

By Mark Ribble

A team of three Leamington District Secondary School students placed first overall in a national chemistry competition.

Last fall, the Grade 10 I.B. Prep students took part in the National Crystal Growing Competition.

With very little instruction, the teams had to take Copper II Sulfate that was provided to them and create the best possible crystal from that.

The team of Kailee Tait, Tyson Bergen and Owenn Flaming said that they experimented for three to four weeks and then settled on two crystals.

The top two crystals were selected from the overall group to represent LDSS at the regional competition at the University of Windsor.

According to Science teacher Lauren Caza, the team of Kailee, Tyson and Owenn excelled at the competition.

“I loved their problem solving,” she said about the trio. “Some groups gave up. This group kept going and wasted no time in getting their crystals ready.”

The crystals took about a week to grow, according to Tyson, who said they add water to the copper sulfate and waited for the crystals to form.

“It’s a super-saturated solution,” added Kailee.

The three also won a cash prize of $250 that they split between them. They not only won the regional competition, they also won the national competition, so they are happy to have the bragging rights.

“It’s nice to have the bragging right with our friends,”says Tyson.

“I found it very inspiring,” added Kailee. “It has inspired me to pursue the sciences, especially chemistry.”

For Owenn, he says he did it “just for the fun of it. There is an educational aspect too,” he said.

Ms. Caza added that it was fun to see everyone working on the project.

The LDSS team of, left to right, Kailee Tait, Tyson Bergen and Owenn Flaming won first place in a recent national chemistry competition. Photo submitted