MARM 2012 - Chemagination

The 2012 Mid-Atlantic Regional Chemagination Competition will take place on the campus of the University of Maryland, Baltimore Campus (UMBC), Baltimore MD on Saturday, June 2, 2012 from 12:00 pm - 5:00 pm. The competition will consist of a poster session and judging, chemistry demonstration, and award ceremony.

For this event, high school students are asked to imagine that they are living 25 years in the future and have been invited to write an article for ChemMatters, a magazine for high school students that focuses on the role of chemistry in everyday life. The subject of the article is: “Describe a recent breakthrough or innovation in chemistry and/or its applications that has improved the quality of people’s lives today.” The article is written to fit in one of four categories: Alternative Energy, Environment, Medicine/Healthcare, or New Materials. In addition to the article, students are asked to design the issue cover as well. The article must be written as if the student is living in the year 2037, looking back at innovations that have occurred since 2012.

Chemagination is a great learning experience for students. In addition to using and adding to their knowledge of science and chemistry, they can improve their creative, teamwork and public speaking skills. Such skills will serve them well in their future careers. Students that have participated in past contests had fun and appreciated the opportunity to meet students from other schools and talk to university and industry scientists.

First place category winners from local ACS Sections’ Chemagination contests are eligible to participate (second place winners can serve as alternates if the first place winner cannot attend). In addition, if local sections are not able to hold a contest, they can choose to submit one team per category directly to the MARM contest.

Louise Lawter of the Princeton Section and Shirish Shaw of the Maryland Section are the MARM Chemagination Coordinators for 2012. They can be contacted at and , respectively. Local ACS Sections are asked to notify them by January 6, 2012 if they are planning on hosting a local contest and intend to participate in MARM Chemagination.

January 6, 2012	Local sections notify contest Coordinators of their intent to participate in 2012 MARM Chemagination.
May 9, 2012	Local sections submit number of participating teams, article titles and information on each student.
May 16, 2012	Teams submit their articles for pre-judging.
June 2, 2012	Chemagination competition takes place at UMBC, Baltimore, MD

MARM Chemagination 2012 is sponsored by the Mid-Atlantic Regional Meeting Executive Board of the American Chemical Society