The cold, dark days of January do not deter West High School (WHS) Chemistry students from getting ready for the annual Chem Bowl event in which they compete against other area high schools in a grueling tournament that tests the students' knowledge of Chemistry. The annual event is held at Corning Community College in May, and is sponsored by the local chapter of the American Chemical Society.

We are allowed to take two teams of four students, explains Mrs. Seip, WHS Chemistry teacher. Teams from West have been participating in the competition for about 18 years, ever since Mrs. Seip started teaching at the school. The students compete against teams from Waverly, Dundee, Horseheads and Elmira. The preliminaries for the event are held the first Friday in May. Finals are held later in the month.

Presently we have about a dozen students who are interested in practicing for the event, says Mrs. Seip. We started practicing in January, and will continue to practice every week or every other week until April. Normally at that point, the students choose to practice more often leading up to the competition, she continues. This kind of dedication and commitment to the subject has fared them well with WHS teams making it to the finals most years. Last year, a team from West finished in second place.