A team of middle school students from Buffalo Grove emerged as one of the top five teams in the You Be the Chemist Challenge and as a result earned a trip this month to Houston, where they competed in person and ultimately finished third overall.
Science Scholars Sandbox after winning Regionals, with Chris Anderle (Principal Application/Systems Sales Engineer with Honeywell UOP), center, and coach Sachleen Tuteja, right
These young chemistry students are members of the Science Scholars Sandbox, started and coached by Sachleen Tuteja of Palatine. She will be a sophomore at Northwestern University this fall, but she competed in the challenge herself as a middle school student at Quest Academy, and it helped ignite her passion for all things STEM.
“During the eye of the pandemic in 2020, I founded Science Scholars Sandbox to virtually bring experiential STEM learning to the kitchen tables of young elementary and middle schoolers,” Tuteja says. “My own early introduction to STEM ignited my passion for it, and with the pandemic, I couldn’t bear to see those monumental experiences being snatched away from the next generation.”
She began teaching chemistry concepts and conducting experiments virtually and now she has grown the Science Scholars Sandbox to more than 30 students. They gather together in a hybrid model, sometimes virtually and sometimes in person.
“The students displayed dedication, passion and poise well beyond their years,” Tuteja said. “I couldn’t be more excited to announce that the Science Scholars Sandbox team came in 3rd place at Nationals!”
Coach Sachleen Tuteja demonstrates the iodine clock reaction via Zoom during the pandemic.
You Be the Chemist Challenge is in its 20th year and is the flagship program of the Chemical Educational Foundation (CEF). This year’s challenge drew more than 4,000 teams from across North America, or 17,000 students overall. According to CEF’s website, more than 50% of this year’s participants were female and many came from economically disadvantaged schools.
The Challenge is a team-based, STEM competition aimed at furthering interest in science and giving students hands-on projects to complete. This year, teams had to form a start-up company to investigate sustainability questions and community-based solutions. In doing so, they mastered high school level chemistry, Tuteja says.
The top five teams were invited to Houston to compete.
“As a grassroots organization, aiming to promote an inquiry-based, science education for the next generation of scientist-leaders,” Tuteja says, “this has been monumental and a testament to the students’ efforts.”
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