Students from Southern Regional College's Armagh campus placed second in a Northern Ireland inter-college competition on laboratory skills. Chloe King, 19, from Keady, and Edward Knipe, 19, from Armagh, both on the Applied Science Level 3 Extended Diploma course, achieved the result.

Teams of two completed an unseen challenge within three hours. The task required a full risk assessment, planning experiments, extracting natural pH indicators from red cabbage and turmeric, and testing their effectiveness in identifying the neutralisation point of hydrochloric acid and sodium hydroxide.

Judges evaluated competitors on task management, communication, technical execution, data analysis, evaluation, problem-solving, and application of scientific methods and chemistry trends.

Top performers received Amazon vouchers. Chloe King and Edward Knipe plan to compete in the WorldSkills UK series.

Dr Deirdre Murray, specialist lecturer at Southern Regional College, stated that Chloe King and Edward Knipe performed well under pressure, showed confidence, teamwork, critical thinking, and precision.