Six Suffolk Public Schools students will advance to the state tournament in The You Be The Chemist Challenge at BASF Corp. next month.

Logan Harris and Seth Moore, of Forest Glen Middle School; Zoe Cacanindin and Charles Wall, of Northern Shores Elementary School; Noah Hill, of King’s Fork Middle School; and Joel Ramos, of John Yeates Middle School, are among 30 students participating in the statewide competition. The challenge begins at noon on April 16 at BASF, 2301 Wilroy Road.

“They are exceptional kids,” said Beverly Nedab, human resources manager at BASF in Suffolk. BASF has sponsored the Chemical Educational Foundation’s chemistry challenge in Virginia for the past four years, giving students in grades 5 to 8 opportunities to get more involved with science, technology, engineering and math courses.

BASF sponsored the Hampton Roads competition on March 19, when 29 students from Suffolk and Newport News competed in an intensive question-and-answer game-style competition, Nedab said.

The competition operates in a quiz bowl format with several rounds of multiple choice questions. Questions are displayed to both the participants and audience on a screen, then students use electronic response devices to answer.

“We like to capture their interest when they are young,” Nedab said. “They are our future leaders and, for BASF, our future employees.

“If we start them early, we hope to encourage them to pursue careers in the chemistry and science fields eventually.”

The winners of the state contest will participate in National Challenge in Philadelphia in June, with the top four finalists receiving scholarships totaling $18,500.

The students who participated in the Hampton Roads competition were from Suffolk and Newport News public schools, Nedab said.

Twelve Suffolk schools participated at the local level, including Driver, Booker T. Washington, Northern Shores, Mack Benn Jr., Nansemond Parkway, Hillpoint, Pioneer, Oakland and Elephant’s Fork elementary schools and Forest Glen, John Yeates and King’s Fork middle schools.