Detroit Section, American Chemical Society

Chemistry Olympiad Page

On-Line Registration (Now Open! )

Olympiad schedule

Olympiad training sessions

The 2008 Detroit Local Section Examination (downloadable version)

Old essay questions

Scenes from the 2008 Chemistry Olympiad

The USNCO National Website

The Detroit Section of the American Chemical Society will again provide Detroit area high school students the opportunity to participate in the U.S. National Chemistry Olympiad (USNCO).  The ultimate objective of this program is to identify the four students who will make up the US team for the International Chemistry Olympiad, to be held in July in Cambridge, England.  The Detroit Section will administer an examination on Wednesday, March 18, 2009, at the University of Michigan-Dearborn (campus map) for the purpose of selecting students as nominees to sit the National Examination. For 2008 schools are allowed to register up to fifteen students and five alternates to take the Local Section Exam. See the Local Section Rules. Based on the results on the Local Section Exam the Detroit Section will nominate twelve (12) students to take the National Exam. The top twelve students on the Local Section Exam will be named as Nominees of the Section and receive cash prizes of $150; the next eight highest scoring students will be named as Runners-up and receive cash prizes of $50.

The Nominees will return to UM-Dearborn on Thursday, April 23 for the National Exam.  The National Exam is a grueling four and half hour test of chemical knowledge and laboratory skills.  Based on the results of the National Exam the top twenty students nationally will be invited to attend the USNCO Study Camp in Colorado Springs.

Generous funding for the USNCO Program in metropolitan Detroit provided by the General Motors Corporation.

For additional information about the 2009 Detroit Section Olympiad program contact Dr. Mark DeCamp at UM-Dearborn by e-mail:  mdecamp@umd.umich.edu.    

On-Line Registration for the Detroit Local Section Exam for the USNCO.  On-line registration will be available on February 2.  Click here to register up to fifteen students and five alternates for the 2009 USNCO Detroit Local Section Exam.  If you would prefer to register by paper, you may download a printable registration form.  Alternatively, you may contact Mark DeCamp at (313) 593-5379 or by email at mdecamp@umd.umich.edu and registration materials will be mailed to you.  A confirmation letter will be sent out when the registration materials have been received.  Deadline for receipt of registration materials is March 13.

Olympiad Schedule of Events      

• Olympiad training sessions  On Saturday, March 14, the Education Committee of the Detroit Section will offer training sessions for Olympiad participants.  They will take place in the Social Sciences Building on the University of Michigan-Dearborn campus (see campus map) from 8:30 until noon.  The training sessions are open to all students without preregistration.  They will focus on major topics covered on the local section exam including Equilibrium and Acid/Base, Kinetics, Electrochemistry and Redox, Descriptive Chemistry, and Thermodynamics.  There will be two one-hour sessions on each topic. 
  
• Registration Deadline: Friday, March 13
  
• The 2009 Detroit Local Section Examination  The Detroit Local Section Examination will be administered on Wednesday, March 18 from 4:30 to 6:30 pm in the Social Sciences Building on the University of Michigan-Dearborn campus. Students should plan to arrive at UM-Dearborn no later than 4:15 for registration
  
• The National Exam The National Exam will be held on Thursday, April 23, 2009 in the Science Building at UM-Dearborn. Following the exam, the Nominees, their families and teachers will be guests of the Detroit Section at the annual Olympiad awards banquet.

Downloadable version of the 2008 Detroit Local Section Exam (and answer key) in .pdf format.  The exam consists of seventy multiple choice questions and an essay question to be used as a tie-breaker.  Almost two hundred students completed the Local Section Exam. The average on the 2008 exam was 45.4 (out of 70) right, with a high score of 65!

Old essay questions In selecting Nominees and Runners-up, ties are broken by means of an essay question.  The topic of the essay question is usually timely.  All the essay questions from previous Detroit Local Section Exams are collected here.


2008 Olympiad Nominees, Runners-up, and participating schools  A listing of the top twenty participants in the 2008 Olympiad.   

Scenes from the 2008 Olympiad  (Coming soon!) A gallery of photos from the 2008 competition.

Detroit representatives at the USNCO Study Camp, 1985 - 2008  The Detroit Section has participated in the USNCO program since 1985.  Although the number of Study Camp participants has dried up recently, for seventeen of the past twenty-two years Detroit has sent at least one student to the Study Camp at the Air Force Academy. 

The USNCO National Website  Additional information about the Chemistry Olympiad program.  Also, at this site are downloadable copies of the generic local section exam and the National exam.


Last updated:  01/26/09