The 14th annual Chemistry at Work event for Year 7 to 11 students which took place at the Milton Keynes City Discovery Centre again proved very successful, with new schools coming from Leighton Buzzard and Luton. This event is becoming widely known, and this time we were able to include the BRE who recreated, in miniature, the types of fires they protect us from when they research building designs.

Demonstrations included: Asbestos, Exploding Fat (by the Fire Service), Bees, Worms, Hospital diagnoses,  Oxygen (by the OU), Gel Making, Drugs Research, Police Chemistry, Investigating Artifacts (by the V&A) and poisons.

The next event at the MK City Discovery Centre will be REAL SCIENCE for Year 6 students in October 2013.

The event at Tring School proved very popular and at the end of the day their Head of Science said they would very much like to host the event again next year. As usual there was a wide range of themes and this day included Exploding Oil by the Fire Service,  Bees Chemistry, Rocket Science, Types of Asbestos, Conducting Tests Scientifically on Fruit, examples of Dangerous Drugs (given by the police) and Mining for Minerals.

The demonstrators enjoyed the day and found Tring School students well behaved and interested.

Our very popular three-day “Chemistry at Work” event at the Milton Keynes City Discovery Centre, running annually since 2000, is again open to students of all abilities in Key Stages Three and Four. Students attend in groups of 15 to 20 with a teacher/supervisor for a day from 09.45 to 15.00 and enjoy eight 30-minute demonstrations given by experts who show how chemistry, and the related sciences, are part of everyday life and work.

It will be running from Tuesday 11th to Thursday 13th June 2013 and schools are invited to apply for places. Last year we had a record number of applications and this year the demonstrations expected include:

“Chemistry on Fire” (Fire Service)
“Creating Casualties with Chemistry” (Casualties Union)
“Dangerous Dust” (Bainbridge Asbestos)
“Fight or Flight” (TerryWestwood.co.uk)
“Going up in Smoke” (Milton Keynes Hospital)
“Hair Styling Gel Formation” (Dr. Brian Perry)
“How do the Police Use Chemistry?”(Pc Rtd Peter Baldwin)
“How Science Supports Art” (V&A)
“Poisons & How They Work” (Professor John Nicholson)
“Fire and Buildings” (Buildings Research Establishment)
“The Life of the Honey Bee” (Nike Bensley)
“The Magic of Oxygen” (Open University)
“We are Your Lifeline” (Ambulance Service)
“Worms” (bugsandbeasties.co.uk)

If you hope to bring your students to this event and have not received an application form please contact me.

As new schools begin hosting Chemistry at Work in 2013 we are reaching even more students and, thanks to the new demonstrators joining us,  more practical demonstrations will be included. We are looking forward to organising both the new and the established events in the coming year.

For the event dates confirmed so far (up to October 2013) please see our dates page.

Happy New Year.

Derek Jones