District 54 student headed to You Be the Chemist state competition after finishing in first place at regionals

A District 54 student is headed to the You Be the Chemist state competition after taking first place at the 11th annual regional competition held March 9 at Schaumburg's Prairie Center for the Arts.

According to the Chemical Educational Foundation website, "You Be the Chemist Challenge is an interactive academic contest that encourages students in grades 5-8 to explore chemistry concepts and their real-world applications." A total of 35 junior high students, including 18 students from six District 54 schools, competed in the Schaumburg Regional Championship for the opportunity to advance to the state level competition on April 29 at Lewis University in Romeoville.

The top two finishers battled through a 46-question tie-breaking round. The winner, Mead eighth-grader Peter Baffoe, was determined by the very last available question. Baffoe placed second at last year's Schaumburg Regional and fifth at the 2016 Illinois State Challenge.

This event was sponsored by UOP, a Honeywell Company, based in Des Plaines, Illinois and was organized with support of the Chemical Education Foundation (CEF).