Fiona Foo | February 07, 2009
"Chemistry and Me"
“Love is shown in your deeds, not in your words.” As Cummings pointed out, my love of Chemistry indeed is manifested in my uniform skirts' numerous pale oxidized stains, courtesy of KMnO4. Though I daresay Cummings hadn't been thinking of those sorts of deeds.
I love Chemistry because I've had so much fun doing it, all thanks to my awesome teachers who let me play around with science.
Fun things I've done, vaguely related to Chemistry:
- Made odd shapes with molecular models
- Used indicators and random chemicals to make pictures on 9x12 well plates
- Fallen asleep on a Physical Chemistry textbook after trying too hard
- Produced pretty-coloured azo dyes in teeny Eppendorf tubes
- Told lots of lame jokes. I'll let the picture speak for itself!
But hands down, the most amazingly fun thing I've done is the 39th International Chemistry Olympiad.
The actual competition is quite boring--just sitting in a lecture theater for a few hours to attack an examination. The really fun part is the preparation with your friends, before the competition. The academic bits are really intense but I enjoyed the training with the other Singaporeans. I was given the nickname Mdm OBOBO by the Singaporean team because I thought B2O5 had the O-B-O-B-O structure. And of course, there's the time that Yongjin's heated methanol solution caught on fire in the fume hood. Trial by fire, much?
Also, the whole International Chemistry Olympiad experience is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. My Israeli roommate, Oshri, has inspired me to seriously consider studying in Israel--MIT has an awesome exchange programme with the Technion. I still keep in touch with my Chem Oly friends, some of whom are trying to teach me Vietnamese and Spanish. My Hungarian guide has promised to show me around Budapest when I return :D
Here's a picture at IChO taken after the Goodbye dinner--we're all happy because the examination is over... Guess who I am. It's not that hard!
Though most people here are American, I can't help much because I don't know about USAChO. Singapore's system is quite straightforward--only one national exam in December.
Anyhow, take it from a ChemOly alumna: Chemistry Olympiad is really exciting and a great way to learn more. You should definitely participate! :D
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The author has filed this entry in the, "Interesting Majors ", "Science Fairs, Olympiads ..." section; check it out for further reading on this topic. |
Responses To This Entry:
woahh singapore xD
and... the one in pink?
Posted by: deng on February 11, 2009 05:02 PM
YAAAAY!!!! Fellow chemistry nut!!! Except I haven't done any of the cool stuff and I'm kind of jealous!! Are you interested in a Chemistry major or ChemE, I'm going for the latter.
Posted by: Matt A. on February 11, 2009 06:02 PM
@deng Good job, lol... :D
@Matt A. Chemistry major aka Course 5. I don't like ChemE because it's a lot of physics and not very "Chemistry". Plus I'm interested in research.
Posted by: Fiona on February 12, 2009 09:02 AM
I get ya, I'm more of an applications kind of guy, so Course 10.
Posted by: Matt A. on February 12, 2009 05:02 PM
