More than 90 middle school students from 35 area schools competed Saturday, April 19, in the You Be the Chemist Challenge at Chief Kanim Middle School in Fall City.

The event, created by the Chemical Educational Foundation, is designed to introduce students to the central role science and chemistry play in daily life, and to make chemistry fun.

This year’s event was part competition, part presentation, with an interactive chemistry demonstration by Carole Berg, a chemistry teacher at Bellevue College, and a discussion of nanotechnology by Maureen Devery, of North Seattle College.

All the participants took a written test as a qualifier for the competition, and 31 students advanced to the electronic rounds, answering multiple-choice questions through four rounds of eliminations.

A Bellevue seventh grader, Aum Upadhyay, from Odle Middle School, was the state winner for the event, and a Chief Kanim student, Rahul Chaliparambil, was the first runner-up.

The Washington YBTC Challenge was sponsored by Microsoft, TRInternational Inc. and Univar. Event hosts were Seattle Science Infinity Club (www.scienceinfinity.org) and Chief Kanim Middle School (http://ckms.svsd410.org).

Learn more about the challenge at www.chemed.org/ybtc.