BMMS Students Compete in You Be the Chemist Challenge

Six students from Blue Mountain Middle School qualified to participate in the Chemical Education Foundation’s (CEF) Westchester Local You Be the Chemist (YBTC) Challenge held March14th in White Plains.

The YBTC Challenge is an interactive academic competition that engages students in grades 5 through 8 in learning with their peers about important chemistry concepts, scientific discoveries, and laboratory safety. Students were chosen to participate in the state competition based on their scores on a qualifying exam developed by the CEF. The winner at the state level advances to the national competition held in Philadelphia in June.

The Challenge was brought to the district by representatives of the Peekskill site of BASF, the world’s leading chemical company. BASF’s Peekskill site supports the district in many ways, including participation in our Project Lead the Way Partnership Team that oversees our biomedical and engineering courses at the high school. They also award an annual scholarship to a graduating High School senior and bring BASF Kids’ Lab, a program that uses hands-on experiments to build interest in science, to BMMS.

Assistant Principal Anecia Bell-Jefferson, who accompanied the Blue Mountain participants, said, “We’re very proud of our students. This is a challenge that called on them to be self-motivated. They studied independently for both the qualifying exam and the program itself, and their dedication speaks to future success. We are also appreciative of all of the parental support we received.”

Caption for small group photo: Blue Mountain Middle School team (l-r) – James Reilly (gr. 7), Vanessa Rossi (gr. 6), Daniel Fitzmaurice (gr. 6), Assistant Principal Anecia Bell-Jefferson, Adhithya Rajaseka (gr. 7), Joseph DiBitetto (gr. 8), and Sam Glasser (gr.8).