Information for participants

REGULATIONS OF THE GRAND PRIX CHIMIQUE

§ 1 Aim of the competition

The Grand Prix Chimique (GPCh) is a chemistry competition organized for students of vocational secondary schools with chemical orientation and apprentices with the aim of promoting international contacts in chemistry. It is intended to stimulate the activities of students interested in chemistry by a way of independent and creative solving of chemical Iaboratory problems. The GPCh competitions help to enhance friendly relations among young people from different countries; they encourage cooperation and international understanding.

§2 Organization and Invitation

(1) The Grand Prix Chimique is a competition organized every two years in one of the participating countries as a rule at the end of August or the beginning of September.

(2) The competition is organized by the Ministry of Education or another appropriate institution of the organizing country (hereafter referred to as the organizer) which can ensure the course of the competition on a desirable Ievel. Some other institutions and companies can be involved as sponsors.

(3) The organizer of the current competition is obliged to send the preliminary information about the competition to all countries that took part in the previous competitions. The information can be sent to other countries as well, but the decision to do so should be discussed with the organizer of the next competition if its organizer is already known. The official invitation to participate in the forthcoming GPCh should be sent to countries by the November preceding the competition. The invited countries must confirm their participation in the GPCh according to requirements of the organizer.

(4) Moreover, other countries may apply for the participation in GPCh but the organizer has the right not to accept their application.

§3 Delegations

(1) Each participating country's delegation can consist of a maximum of three competitors and one mentor who becomes the head of the delegation. The definite number of competitors is determined by the organizer. Moreover, a country that is invited to attend may send maximum two accompanying persons as observers.

(2) The competitors:

a) must be students who attend or have just finished any vocational school with a chemical orientation and had never been occupied professionally in a chemical Iaboratory. On the first day of the competition they must be younger than 22 years,

b) must be passport holders of the country they represent or they had to take part in the vocational school educational system of this country for more than one academic year,

c) have to be identified on the basis of a national competition.

(3) AII members of a delegation must provide themselves with medical insurance for the journey to/from the organizing country and the stay in the country.

(4) The mentor:

a) Is responsible for the fulfillment of those conditions given in sections 2 and 3 of this paragraph,

b) must translate, if necessary, the text of competition tasks from English into the mother tongue of his/her students or a Ianguage understandable to the students and be able to judge the set of tasks, evaluate and correct the work of the students,

c) takes part in the work of the International Jury,

d) has the right to enter a protest which should be addressed to the Chair of the International Jury.

§4 Obligations of the Organizer

1) The organizer of the Grand Prix Chimique provides:

a) the timetable of the competition,

b) transportation from/to an airport/station decided by the host country on the day of arrival and departure,

c) an appropriate full accommodation (food and Iodging) for the head of the delegation and the competing students,

d) appropriate accommodation for the accompanying persons, e) a guide to each team of competitors,

f) the opportunity for the mentors and participants to inspect the working room and practical apparatus to be used for the tasks before the competition takes place,

g) accident insurance for all participants in connection with the organized program,

h) arrangement for the observance of the safety regulations,

i) the medals or prizes and certificates which are presented at the official closing ceremony ,

j) as far as possible a chemistry related and cultural program.

2) The organizer must:

a) provide the organization of the competition following the regulations,

b) prepare the competition tasks and Iaboratories and their equipment on a desirable Ievel,

c) guarantee the equal competition conditions for all competitors,

d) provide suitable conditions for the work of the International Jury, computers including.

§5 Financing

(1) The participating country covers the return travel costs of the students and the accompanying persons (mentors and observers) to the designed airport/station or to the place where the competition is held.

(2) AII other costs in connection with the organized program, including the costs of accommodation for all competitors and members of the International Jury, are covered by the organizer.

(3) The organizer of the next Grand Prix Chimique may send one observer to the current GPCh with his/her expenses covered by the host as mentioned in the preceding section 2.

(4) The other observers and accompanying persons must cover all expenses connected with their stay in accord with the program of the competition themselves.

(5) In the case of International Committee meeting, the participating country covers the return travel costs of its delegate to the designed airport/station or to the place where the meeting is held whereas the board and Iodging and other costs in connection with the organized program, are covered by the organizer.

I n s t i t u t i o n s o f G P Ch

§6 International Committee

(1) The participating country delegates one contact person who becomes a member of the International Committee till the end of the current competition. This person is obliged to send the name of one contact person who will represent the participating country in the next period at Ieast two months after the previous competition.

(2) The Committee is chaired by the chairman who is elected from among the members of the International Committee and serves for a period of four years. The chairman initiates, organizes and chairs the meetings of the GPCh International Committee.

(3) The member of the International Committee receives all necessary information about the forthcoming competition and initiates the preparation of a national team for the international competition.

(4) The International Committee has no rights to interfere with the work of the Organizing Committee or International Jury of the current competition. In the period between the previous a forthcoming competitions it can, however, prepare some proposals for business sessions of the International Jury and agree upon some amendments to the regulations of the GPCh.

(5) Resolutions of the International Committee are passed by voting and they are agreed by a single majority of votes in the presence of 75 % of members. Changes in the regulations require a qualified majority (two thirds of the votes with regards to the total number of participating countries).

§7 International Jury

(1) The International Jury of the current competition consists of a chair and members. The chair of the International Jury is nominated by the organizer. The members of the International Jury are the heads of the particular delegations. The work of the Jury starts with the opening session of the competition and ends with the closing ceremony.

(2) The chair of the International Jury or his/her delegate calls and chairs all meetings of the International Jury concerning the current competition.

(3) Resolutions of the International Jury are passed when they are agreed by a single majority of votes in the presence of at Ieast 75% of the delegations. Each participating country has one vote. The chair has a casting vote in the event of a tie. The decisions of the International Jury are binding for both organizer and participants.

(4) AII correspondence, competition tasks and written materials of the International Jury and International Committee are to be in English. Moreover, German can also be used in discussions during the meetings of the International Jury and International Committee but in these cases translation into English is supposed and must be guaranteed by the organizer.

§8 Responsibilities of the Internation~1 Jury

1) The International Jury:

a) is in charge of the actual competition and its supervision according to the regulations,

b) discusses in advance the competition tasks presented by the organizer, their solutions and the marking guidelines, gives comments and decides in case of changes,

c) checks the equipment and facilities necessary for the competition tasks,

d) determines and approves the referees and their assignments to particular competitors,

e) can adopt the other persons as referees who are, however, not the members of the International Jury and can neither take part in voting nor influence it,

f) guarantees perfect corrections of the competitors' works,

g) approves the final results, determines the winners and decides on prizes and documents for the competitors,

h) monitors the competition and suggests changes to the regulations, organization and contents for future GPCHs,

i) decides about protests if any occur

j) takes decisions on excluding of a participant or a whole team from the competition

2) The members of the International Jury:

a) are obliged to maintain a professional discretion about any relevant information they receive during the GPCh and must not assist any participants,

b)keep the marking and results secret until proclaimed by the International Jury.

C o m p e t i t i o n

§9 Organization of the GPCh competition

(1 ) By March proceeding of the competition the organizer is obliged to distribute to all participating countries a Iist of Iaboratory techniques and methods which, taking into consideration also the Ievels of previous GPCh competitions, will be used in the forthcoming competition so that students can get a good idea of the type and difficulty of the competition tasks, including safety aspects and criteria according to which Iaboratory skill and preciseness at work will be evaluated.

(2) The competition consists of solving of at Ieast two Iaboratory tasks (classic and instrumental analysis, preparative tasks). A working time of maximum sixteen hours is allotted altogether for all competition. The Iaboratory work can be organized in two or three days.

(3) The text of the tasks is to be distributed to all members of the International Jury at the beginning of the competition. However, there must be no contact between mentors and competitors once the mentors received the competition tasks for consideration. No information about the competition tasks must be passed to the competitors directly or indirectly prior and during the competition.

(3) The head of the delegation decides on the Ianguage in which his competitors receive all the relevant information and are allowed to write their solutions.

(5) Only non-programmable pocket calculators may be used for the solving of the tasks.

(6) The safety regulations announced by the organizer are binding for all participants and those who enter chemical laboratories.

(7) Breaking of any rules given in the preceding paragraphs has as its consequence excluding from the whole or a part of the competition.

§10 Safety

(1) During the Iaboratory work, the competitors must wear Iaboratory coats and eye protection. The competitors are expected to bring their own Iaboratory coats. Other means of protection for Iaboratory work are provided by the organizer.

(2) When handling with Iiquids, each student must be provided with a pipette ball or filler. Pipetting by mouth is strictly forbidden.

(3) The use of very toxic substances (designation T +) is strictly forbidden. The use of toxic substances (designation T) is not recommended, but may be allowed if special precautions are taken. Substances belonging to the categories must not be used under any circumstances (see Appendix A for definitions of these categories).

(4) The mentors must receive necessary safety requirements from the organizer so that they have time enough to instruct properly their participants in advance. The participants are then required at the beginning of the competition to sign a declaration telling that they have been instructed about the safety rules on a sufticient Ievel.

§11 Competition Tasks

(1) The organizer is responsible for the preparation of competition tasks by competent experts/authors. They propose the methods of solution and the marking scheme.

(2) The tasks, their solutions and the marking schemes are submitted to the International Jury for consideration and approval. The authors of the tasks should be present during the discussion. The criteria for subjective evaluation of the Iaboratory skill and preciseness of the work of the competitors must be explained and discussed in details, finally unified and accepted by all referees.

(3) The total length of all experimental tasks must not exceed 20,000 characters. SI symbols and units must be used throughout the competition tasks.

(4) In the competition experimental tasks the following conditions must be fulfilled:

a) Competitors may ask for original English version of the task if they find it helpful. ,

b) Competitors must receive the same unknown sample when solving the tasks from qualitative analytical chemistry.

b ) When solving tasks from quantitative analytical chemistry competitors must receive the same sample but with different concentrations of substances.

d) In evaluating the quantitative tasks the master values must not be based on average results of the competitors.

e) In quantitative tasks, the great majority of the grade must be given to the results as reported by the competitors as well as to the corresponding equations, calculations, or explanations directly related to the work. In the preparative work, however, Iaboratory skill and work is emphasized. Proposal for points distribution is given by the author.

§ 12 Correcting and Marking

(1 ) A number of points allocated to particular parts of the competition task is proposed by the authors who must take into account that the points for experimental records of the competitors cannot exceed 5 %.

(2) The skill of competitors at their Iaboratory work is judged and marked independently by two referees according to precise and unambiguous criteria. One of the referees is a member of the International Jury (mentor), the other one is nominated by the organizer. The couple of referees must agree on the final score. A mentor cannot judge the Iaboratory skill of their own students. The organizer proposes the criteria for creating couples of referees and the way how to assign them to particular competitors. The above criteria and procedure must be approved by the International Jury.

(3) The solutions of the competition tasks recorded by competitors are corrected independently by the authors and by the mentors. Consequential marking should be used so that students are not punished twice for the same error. Both corrections are then compared. After a discussion the final score for each participant is reached and agreed by both sides. The organizer retains the original marked manuscripts.

(4) The International Jury discusses the results and decides on the final scores. (5) In order to eliminate any doubts about possible mistakes in the processing of the results the organizer must provide the mentors with a Iist of their students' total results before the closing awards' ceremony.

§ 13 Results and Prizes

(1) Official results of the competition and the number of medals/prizes awarded are decided by the International Jury.

(2) The number of medals/prizes cannot exceed 25 % of the whole number of the participants. The exact number of medals/prizes is decided on the basis of an anonymous review of the results.

(3) Every medalist must receive the medal and a corresponding certificate from the organizer.

(4) In addition to the medals other prizes may be awarded.

(5) Each competitor and mentor receives a certificate of participation.

(6) In the awarding ceremony, the non medalists are called in alphabetical order. (7) No team classification takes place.

(8) The organizer must provide a complete Iist of results as a part of the final report.

§ 14 Final regulations

(1) Those who take part in the competition acknowledge these regulations through their very participation.

(2) These Regulations have been approved by the International Committee and will be applied for the first time to the 6th Grand Prix Chimique in Nitra (Slovakia).

(3) The regulations are valid from November 1^st, 2000. Changes in them can only be made by the International Committee by voting (see § 6).