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Ashton Osborne

Gruen Chemistry Society Takes Second at Battle of the Chem Clubs


The Gruen Chemistry Society com- peted in the Battle of the Chem Clubs, a competition that includes clubs from all over the state. This year, on Jan. 28, they faced off against 11 other clubs at Michigan State University and took second place.

According to Susanne M. Lewis, associate professor of Chemistry, The Battle of the Chem Clubs is a day-long event that starts off with four sets in the morning, followed by lunch. The team’s score by lunch decides where it are is the quarter nals. If teams score well enough, they advance to the semi-finals and then finals.

The Olivet team made it through both the quarter finals, which were “titration races,” and the semi-finals, which were Olympic-themed events this year, to get to the finals, which was a chemistry jeopardy-like game. Students switched out so that everyone had the opportunity to participate in at least one event.

Katie Asslelin, sophomore, said that her favorite event was the charades. “They picked something out of a bowl and they had easy, medium and hard ones. They had to act it out whatever was said and the other people in the group had to guess it. That was a lot of fun ‘cause they had to do some funny things.”

While the society does events like the Battle of the Chem Clubs, they also get the opportunity to go

to a national conference later on in March. According to Jackson Keiss, junior and vice president of the Gruen Chemistry Society, said, “We’re taking a group of seven students down to New Orleans for our national conference. We will be representing Olivet College at the national scale. Part of it is a technical exposition. Graduate students and professors from around the world come to this event and they present some of their research to their colleagues, and as members of the American Chemical Society, we’re registered and we’re allowed to watch their presentations as well.”

Kiess said, “Gruen Chemistry Society may be a chemistry society, but it’s open to anybody regardless of major. We’ve had business majors and math majors come in and everybody is welcome. You don’t need to know a thing about chemistry to come and have a good time.”

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