Chemistry Solutions

The author, remembering her fears before being accepted as a mentor; “Those kids are too smart!”

In a world filled with acronyms, I’d like to risk introducing yet one more, as it represents a program highly relevant to our profession as high school chemistry teachers. USNCO stands for the United States National Chemistry Olympiad program, which is a mouthful to be sure! It is also, in my opinion, one of the most amazing programs that is offered to teachers and students who are passionate about chemistry and want to challenge themselves beyond a traditional classroom program.

The USNCO is a program (usually referred to as simply the Chemistry Olympiad) sponsored by the American Chemical Society that is designed to find and recognize outstanding high school chemistry students. It also serves to challenge them to explore chemistry understanding beyond what they learn in a typical high school class. Some of the most crucial components for the success of the USNCO program are the coaches and mentors who are chemistry educators at both college and high school levels.

My friend, Roxie Allen, who tends to be the driving force behind my own participation in various ACS endeavors, had been a USNCO mentor in the early 2000s. Since then, she had persistently encouraged me to apply to do the same, so I eventually broke down and sent in the application. To my surprise, I was invited for an interview and was ultimately selected for the mentor team! My time as a USNCO Mentor, a standard 3-year commitment from 2012 to 2014, was an amazing experience that I’d recommend to everyone who may even consider the possibility.

Tier 1: Local Exam

My participation in USNCO began in a small way, by arranging for some of my top chemistry students to take the local exam, which usually takes place in March. For this first phase of the multi-tiered USNCO competition, local ACS sections typically either coordinate a testing day or distribute tests to interested teachers, who schedule time within the official testing period for their own students to sit for the test. Students register with the local ACS section, get the appropriate permission forms completed, and then arrange to take the 60-question, multiple-choice exam. The exam covers a broad range of chemistry topics, some of which are intentionally beyond the scope of typical high school courses. Though students can often do well if their high school chemistry preparation has been thorough, I’ve found that it is still a good idea to have them practice with past exams so they are familiar with the range of topics that may be encountered.

Tier 2: National Exam

A typical lab set-up for one student in the laboratory portion of the Chemistry Olympiad exam.

After I began giving the local exam to my top students, I soon realized that taking the exam had become a valuable experience for them — even if only as preparation for finals, AP exams, or college exams. I eventually made it a yearly routine to identify students, administer the test, and send in the students’ answer sheets.

Then, one year I was informed that two of my students had qualified for the next step … the national exam! Wow, I thought, now I must figure out how to step up my game. The national exam is a full-day event, with nearly five hours of total testing time, broken up with short breaks and time for lunch. As this event is administered by the local ACS Sections, invited students will not have to travel far to participate in the three-part day of testing.

The multiple-choice portion is similar in breadth to the local exam. In other portions of the exam, students solve problems using chemical theories and models in a written, open-ended format and then participate in a laboratory-based practical exam, where they are presented with an experimental problem and are expected to have the basic lab skills to solve it.

To help my two students prepare for this experience, I set up various lab practicals that were modeled on past exams and used the same time limit so they could have a realistic test-taking experience. Fortunately, the USNCO provides links to all parts of previous local and national exams, so uninitiated teachers (like I was at the time) have somewhere to turn when helping their students prepare for this endeavor. I’m proud to report that one of my two students performed well enough on the national exam to be invited to participate in the next step!

Tier 3: Study Camp

Image Courtesy of ACS. Laboratory students participating in the study camp.

After all the national exam sessions are concluded, student scores are computed using a multi-leveled rubric and then the top 20 students from across the country are invited to participate in a two-week study camp, where they compete for the honor of representing the United States at the International Chemistry Olympiad in July. This is the portion of the competition where USNCO’s team of mentors plays the largest role. When selected as a mentor, I had only the stories of my former student to shape my expectations. To say I was nervous would be a gross understatement!

During my first year, the study camp was held at the US Air Force Academy. Mentors spend time getting ready in the months before the camp, but the two days of on-site preparation before our students arrived were typical of any endeavor where one group takes over another group’s space. It reminded me of those set-up days for science conferences when everyone is looking for the graduated cylinders and trying to figure out where to dispose of the waste. Our mentor team was moving in just as the Air Force cadets were moving out.

As a teacher, I’ve learned to expect the unexpected, but I will never forget experiencing the room where the outgoing cadets had run out of refills for their plug-in air fresheners and decided to refill them with Axe body spray! Not a great idea, but certainly a unique “aroma”! Despite the olfactory offenses, the mentor team persisted in preparing these newly vacated rooms for the high school students, setting up lab materials for the two weeks of training, shopping for snacks and office supplies, organizing airport pickups, and generally scrambling until our students were all present and the studying began.

Though I did not feel confident in my own abilities going into this endeavor, I soon realized that, though these students are highly intelligent, ultimately kids are still kids. The USNCO recognizes the need for high school teachers to help support the program, even if they are not experts in all the chemistry topics that may be addressed. Many of the students are young and have not spent a lot of time away from home. High school teachers are often better equipped than college professors to manage the teenage worry and angst that can appear during a high-stakes event like this, and each mentor, regardless of level, brings a distinctive skill set to the team.

Tier 4: International Competition

Image Courtesy of ACS. The U.S team posing in front of a statue of Mikhail Lomonosov, father of Russian science. Moscow State University is in the background.

During that first study camp, I “found my groove.” To quote my friend Roxie, “It was the single most valuable professional development of my career!” In fact, I would add several exclamation points to that notion. I found where my skill set fit into the program, learned more chemistry than I thought possible (though at times it felt like drinking from a firehose), and worked with incredible students and colleagues.

After the camp in June, the team and mentors head to the international competition in July, where the mentors act as coaches, chaperones, and advocates for the U.S. students. The international competition is just that: a competition where up to four students from each of about 80 participating countries have an opportunity to show what they can do on both a theoretical exam and a practical exam. The top students are awarded medals. There are ceremonies, social activities, exams, tours, and much more. For both students and mentors, it can be an amazing and transformative experience. I traveled with the team to competitions in Washington D.C., Moscow, Russia, and Hanoi, Vietnam. Each set of students was unique, each locale was distinct, and I would not trade these experiences for anything.

Take the next step!

As teachers, we can play a huge role in the success of the USNCO program. If you’re new to participating, start by identifying students who might have an interest in learning more chemistry, and get them the information needed to register for the local exam. (Check with your local ACS section if you need test dates and locations.)

There are plenty of webinars and even a teacher training course available through the USNCO website. (Note that USNCO’s Teacher Training Program does not require a membership, but log-in does require an ACS ID. Nonmembers can reach out to their local section for access.)

If you are service-minded, you might think about volunteering to help proctor a local exam, or even the national exam in your area. Though only a few mentors can be accepted each year, the program is always looking for high school teachers to fill other roles throughout the program, like providing online coaching and tutoring or participating in one of the USNCO committees.

Whatever your level of familiarity with the USNCO program, I want to encourage you to take it a step farther. Recruit those top students, reach out to your local ACS section, or even apply to fill one of the many roles available to high school chemistry teachers. Don’t hesitate. Take the risk. I highly recommend it!

As you look toward the final months or weeks of this academic year, be sure you take a few moments to think ahead about things you may want to consider improving or adding to your teaching repertoire for next year. I hope you will consider getting involved, or more involved, in the USNCO program, and I encourage you to read the May issue of Chemistry Solutions for even more ideas!

The May issue has articles targeted to get you thinking about small changes you might make in the next school year that can make big differences for you and for your students.

• Check out the Featured Resource, in which Michael Bowman shows you how the increasingly important field of computational chemistry can be introduced to your high school students through simple modeling activities that might even increase student interest in common chemistry topics.
• Get inspired by Tola Ogundipe, who shares tips from her experience as a Fulbright Global Teacher, through which she learned to embrace more culturally responsive ways to connect with the increasingly diverse student body within her school system.
• Read Randy Weintraub’s story of how his previous career in research unexpectedly prepared him for many of the trials of teaching high school chemistry… and maybe even use his story to encourage someone you know to become a chemistry teacher!
• Learn from Leslie Marasco, Hach Administration Program Manager, about the story of Clifford and Kitty Hach, whose philanthropy continues to bolster chemistry education by financially supporting its educators, including active teachers and those considering becoming teachers as a second career or after majoring in a science field.
• Work through our new simulation, The Behavior of Gases, with your students to help them learn the particle level reasoning that explains macroscopic changes in gas samples.
• Read Dear Labby to learn the answer to a teacher’s question about the chemistry behind color changes that occur when certain copper (II) ion solutions are diluted.
• Use the new Chemistry Fun resource, Scientist Scramble, to kick-start a review session for final exams or a final project.

As this will be the last Chemistry Solutions issue of the 2025-26 school year, I wish you a happy end to your school year and a summer that is relaxing, inspiring, or whatever else you need it to be! Thanks for all you do!



Aimee Modic
Board President, AACT
2025–2026