Chemical Education Division

My personal opinion is that the titration competition needs to cease being a ranked competition with a defined winner, as this simply isn't appropriate in the context of what is a proficiency testing activity that should reinforce to participants that many calculated concentrations are within a valid band for the expected skillset for this activity.

It is my recommendation that there be consideration by the ChemEd Division of the improved value to school-age participants that engage in this outreach activity by the RACI to have in place performance-related metrics for awarding tiers to individuals and teams, which reflect their competency from the data submitted. 

Inherent within the titration activities are uncertainties of measurement, which we do not ask the students to consider, and yet which we all appreciate means there will be a consensus of calculated concentrations to arise from the aggregated data submitted to each competition.

Bearing this in mind, I contend it is somewhat punitive and potentially offputting for a reasonably talented student to have a numerical ranking for their school's result and not necessarily know if their measured values were acceptable.

I'm happy to have a broader conversation on this topic with those actively involved in reviewing the Titration Competition outreach activities, as I have been wrestling with for at least a couple of years now on how to suggest reform.

Dan

I have to agree with you about the titration competition, Daniel, and that's speaking as a sometime titration expert. Our (former) little company Multitrator made automated multi-mode titration systems featuring TET (thermometric endpoint titrimetry) and we sold the enabling technology to Metrohm. All in all, I developed over 100 applications for process and quality control, and there was some interesting chemistry along the way. However, the kids aren't going to experience what a still useful industrial technique titration is, what with 0.1M HCl and NaOH to a phenolpthalein EP. Totally boring and frustrating. I think we need to think way outside the box about ho to get kids interested in STEM. It's looking like we could be circling the drain unless something drastic and radical is done. Could this be the subject of another thread?