Due to the Covid 19 pandemic, ACS will be hosting the local section High School Olympiad online again this year. National ACS is using the ACS Learning Center (hosted by Moodle) to host the Local Section Exam as well as Part I of the National Exam. All students who intend to take the National Exam must be registered by February 1, 2021 in order to take the Local Section and National exams. Interested students should send an email with their names, email addresses, school name and address and teacher’s name and email address (or the teacher should send the information for the school) to Nancy Paradiso at office@scalacs.org no later than January 27, 2021 so we can register them with National ACS by February 1st. Details will be emailed to registered students.
The process will require students to enroll in a “course” in the ACS Learning Center. They will receive an enrollment key from us that will link them to our Section cohort. Students will login to the ACS Learning Center using the code. There will be a demographics survey and practice test to get used to the testing environment, and they will take the test online. Both the Local Section Exam and the National Exam will be proctored so students will need a web cam and a stable internet connection, as well as a smart phone, smart pad, lap top or desktop to participate. We need volunteers to help proctor the Local Section Exam. If you’d like to volunteer to proctor online, please email Nancy Paradiso at office@scalacs.org.
On January 6, 2021, ACS is offering a webinar for students entitled “How to Learn Chemistry”. To register for this webinar, students should go to
https://american-chemical-society.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_aJRN8pjPQemAeyUD16iDLg
The Local Section exam will take place online on Saturday, March 27, 2021. The National Exam will be in two parts. There will not be a lab portion again this year. All the students who qualify from the Local Section Exam will take Part I of the National Exam on Saturday, April 17, 2021. The top 200 students nationally will take Part II of the National Exam on Saturday, April 24, 2021. Participating students for the National Study Camp will be notified by May 3, 2021.
The good news is that we are not charging for the test this year. Because of that, we cannot offer cash prizes for our highest scoring students, but we will still recognize our top students with certificates at our Educational Awards Program in May.
If you have any questions, please email Nancy Paradiso at office@scalacs.org or Dr. Gerald Delker at delker@earthlink.net. We look forward to your schools participating again in our Local Section High School Olympiad.
for Title I Students
The Southern California Section is forming a Committee to offer mentoring/tutoring to students in Title I schools that are interested in taking the ACS High School Olympiad on March 27, 2021. While this workshop will be geared to the High School Olympiad, the goal is to reach students who have an interest or aptitude for science and help it grow.
The first meeting will be held via Zoom on Saturday, January 16th from 10:30 am – 12:30 pm. The continuing Zoom meetings are planned for each succeeding Saturday until the Olympiad. They will focus on different areas of chemistry. Depending on interest, we will continue after that.
Please see the announcement above with further details about the Olympiad. If you have students interested in the Mentoring Program, please ask them to email Nancy Paradiso at office@scalacs.org by January 14, 2021 to RSVP. The Zoom link will be sent to registered students.
If you have any questions about mentoring or tutoring (including to volunteer to tutor), please email Dr. Edye Udell at EUDell@westridge.org. We look forward to having your students take advantage of this special tutoring opportunity.