Schools' Competitions, Festivals and Awards

Schools' Competitions, Festivals and Awards

The Department of Chemistry supports and recommends a number of competitions, festivals and awards designed to challenge students and encourage them to be curious about chemistry.

Star Awards

Star Awards are a great introduction to problem-solving in STEM. They offer children the opportunity to learn through hands-on challenges that focus on their everyday lives.

SuperStar Awards

SuperStar Awards are a great introduction to problem-solving in STEM. They offer children the opportunity to learn through hands-on challenges by exploring the world around them.

RSC Top of the Bench

An annual schools’ practical chemistry competition for Year 9-11 involving regional heats and a national final.

STEM Spelling Bee

A competition for Year 7 (or equiv.) designed to raise the profile of scientific vocabulary through competitive spelling.

Discovery Awards

One-day projects giving an introduction to group-work, and giving students the freedom to run their own investigations.

CREST Bronze Award

Bronze Awards introduce students to project work empowering them to work like real scientists, technologists, engineers or mathematicians. Students choose their own topic and methodologies, giving them complete freedom over their work.

Key Stage 4 (14-16 yrs)

Salters' Festival of Chemistry

The Salters’ Institute Festivals of Chemistry are a series of popular and inspiring events involving lecture-demonstrations and practical work.

The Oxford Scientist Schools' Writing Competition

A chance for students in Years 10-13 (or equivalent) to test their writing skills on a scientific question.

RSC Top of the Bench

An annual schools’ practical chemistry competition for Year 9-11 involving regional heats and a national final.

CREST Silver Award

Silver Awards are designed to stretch students and enrich their STEM studies. Students develop their own project idea and gain in-depth experience of the scientific method or engineering design process.

Key Stage 5 (16-19 yrs)

Unsung Heroes of Science

Make a two-minute video to celebrate a forgotten scientific hero. Win prizes and raise the profile of those not celebrated in school textbooks!

The Oxford Scientist Schools' Writing Competition

A chance for students in Years 10-13 (or equivalent) to test their writing skills on a scientific question.

RSC Chemistry Olympiad

A challenging annual competition for students in Year 13 (or equiv.). Past papers, mark schemes and commentaries available, along with worked examples and interactive tutorials provided by the Wolfson Trust.

Cambridge Chemistry Challenge (C3L6)

An excellent way to extend students in Year 12 (and able Year 11) or equivalent. Past papers, mark schemes and commentaries available.

RSC Schools' Analyst Competition

The Schools' Analyst competition enables Year 12 (or equivalent) students to demonstrate and expand on their existing chemistry knowledge, skills and aptitude for analytical science through practical analytical experiments based on relevant societal or industrial problems.

CREST Gold Award

Gold Awards are longer projects that immerse students in real research, working alongside a mentor from their chosen STEM field of study.

Chemistry Race

A student-led one-day competition event for teams of Y12/13s looking to study chemistry or related subjects at university. Questions are written by current university students and tackle problems across the chemical sciences, aiming to stretch the students beyond the A-level curriculum. The event takes place in four venues: Oxford, Cambridge, Pardubice (Czechia) and Vienna (Austria).

Schools' Competitions, Festivals and Awards