Bellevue seventh grader Aum Upadhyay took home first place in the You Be the Chemist Challenge on April 19. Upadhyay competed against more than 90 middle school students from 35 area schools across the state.

The event, created by the Chemical Educational Foundation, is designed to introduce students to the 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.