Dear Educator or Student,

The Cleveland Section of the American Chemical Society and NASA Glenn Research Center are again sponsoring chemistry contests for grade-school students in grades K-5, 6-8, and  9-12, as a part of their National Chemistry Week (NCW) celebration!

These contests have been designed to provide students with a real world example of chemistry.  All of the contests require that each student perform a task, record observations, and organize his or her  thoughts to answer age-appropriate questions.  The contests were designed such that only common items are used for the activity; no special chemicals or equipment are needed.  Please see the individual contest descriptions for detailed instructions. (in Adobe Acrobat format, pdf)

• Grades K-4
• Grades 5-8
• Grades 9-12
  • Alignment of contests to State of Ohio Standards for teachers.   

We encourage teachers to introduce the contest(s) in your classroom and send entries in as a class.  Students who attend school (or are home-schooled) in the geographical area of the Cleveland Section (Cuyahoga, Geauga, Medina, Lorain, Erie, and Huron counties) are eligible to enter the Cleveland Section NCW Chemistry Contest.  Each individual entry must include the student's name, home address (including city and zip code), and telephone number, teacher's name, grade, school, school address (including city & zip code), and school telephone number.  (See Chemistry Contest Entry Form for a printable form.)  Home-schooled students should provide information as appropriate.  All entries must be postmarked by November 6, 2009.

Students do not have to enter through their school system. Individual entries are welcome from any child in the participating geographical area. Teachers who do not incorporate this program into their class may still encourage their students to participate on their own.

Every student who submits a complete entry is eligible to receive a small souvenir for participating.  To receive this souvenir, a self-addressed stamped envelope MUST be sent along with the contest entry.  We encourage you to send one large, self-addressed, stamped envelope for your entire class or group.  For each class, please use an envelope approximately 9" x 12"  with sufficient postage so that we can include the prizes for all of the students in your class that entered the contest.  Please use $0.83 postage for five or fewer entries and add $0.46 postage for each additional set of five entries up to 30.  For 31 to 45 entries, please use a Priority Mail envelope (envelopes are available free of charge at your Post Office) with $3.85 postage.  For larger classes/groups, please contact Lois Kuhns at ch_kuhns@hotmail.com for postage details or other arrangements.

Send all entries to:
                    2009 NCW Contest
                    c/o Mark Waner, Department of Chemistry
                    John Carroll University
                    20700 North Park Blvd.
                    University Heights, OH 44118

Complete contest entries will also be entered into a drawing and the winners of that drawing for each age group will receive $25 cash prizes and an invitation to attend the April 2010 Education Night meeting of the Cleveland Section American Chemical Society (ACS).

We hope you and your students enjoy these contests. We also hope that this helps your students to experience the excitement of discovery and to see the relevance of chemistry to their daily lives!

Sincerely,

Kat Wollyung & Bob Fowler
2009 Co-Chairs, NCW Committee, Cleveland section ACS