Year 10 National Scientific Thinking Challenge 2026

The National Scientific Thinking Challenge competition is organised by the Chemistry Departments of six universities: Warwick, Southampton, Bristol, Newcastle, Manchester and Oxford, and is supported by UCAS. This year, 16,174 students took part from 255 schools.

Huge congratulations to Gold Certificates winners:
92% Felipe D and Dashenka K
87% Ram P
85% Troy L and Aryan K

Gold winners scored over 78%, so although 10% of entries were awarded Gold, all of these boys are in the top 5% (800 entries), and Felipe and Dashenka are in the top 0.25% (40 entries)

The organisers commented: 'It is amazing for us to see how well your students do at this. Some of those questions were hard! Thank you for encouraging them and for teaching them so well.'

The students answered questions about:

• elephants and how studying their DNA can help us to learn more about them and protect them. The DNA from elephants was compared with the DNA from woolly mammoths (collected from skin and teeth of mammoths preserved in permafrost). The students also studied how ivory poaching is being combated, and that elephants are frightened of bees;

• about solar power - electricity generated directly from sunlight using solar, or “photovoltaic”, panels;

• about tackling climate change by reducing methane emissions from cattle by 80% using red algae;

• about making the generation of nuclear power safer by using a new fuel, thorium, blended with molten sodium chloride.

The Chemistry Department is delighted and proud that the enthusiasm and ability of these students have been tested and recognised at national level, putting them in elite company.

The National Scientific Thinking Challenge will not run after this year, and Hymers has certainly gone out with a bang.