Chemistry: the next generation update
The new Aimhigher chemistry outreach initiative is gaining momentum with the first three events run under the Chemistry: the next generation banner held during March. The collaborative project, set up by a consortium of 12 university chemistry departments, three pharmaceutical companies, two sector skills councils and the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), aims to promote the chemical sciences and demonstrate the exciting career opportunities to students from schools and colleges that are under-represented in higher education (see Educ. Chem., 2004, 41(5) 115).
Directed at the national level by the RSC’s Dr Kate Burrell, the project’s three regional coordinators are now in place. They are: Dr Jennifer Matthews (North West), based at the University of Manchester’s school of chemistry; Liz Blackshaw (East Midlands), based in Leicester University’s chemistry department; and Jayne Shaw (London) from the department of chemistry at University College London (UCL).
For the project’s launch event in March, Chemistry: hands free and hands-on!, ca 160 local students converged on the East Midland’s Science Learning Centre for the day to find out about the chemistry behind mobile phones. Guided by staff from the chemistry departments of Leicester, Loughborough, Nottingham and Nottingham Trent Universities as well as staff from AstraZeneca, the students and their teachers took part in several practical workshops (see Box). Senior school chemistry examiners Colin Chambers and Graham Curtis were also on hand
to give advice on how to pass exams and what mistakes to avoid, while representatives from industry and the RSC were present to give careers advice.
Also held in March were two events in the North West region. Both ‘flash and bang’ demonstration-lectures, the first was held at the University of Manchester’s department of chemistry, with over 200 local students in the audience. However, for the second event Manchester chemists set up in the Barrow Sixth Form College in Barrow-in-Furness, an area where students would normally have to endure a 100-mile round trip to the nearest university to take part in outreach activities.
With the national and regional coordinators in place further activities are expected soon. According to Burrell, the project organisers are currently exploring the possibility of running a long-term mentoring scheme with the Careers Research Advisory Centre (CRAC), in which postgraduate students and industrialists will act as mentors to 14–19-year olds aiming to acquire ‘teamworking’ qualifications. ‘We don’t want this to be an "in-and-out" outreach activity’, Burrell says, ‘but one with sustained and long-term contact with students’. As the project continues so will its website evolve. ‘Eventually the site will include a step-by-step guide of all the activities run through the project, the aim of which will be to share best practice in running outreach activities with universities not already involved in the project’, explains Burrell.
For further information on the project and recent activities in the three regions or nationally see the RSC outreach website or contact Dr Kate Burrell, Aimhigher national coordinator Chemistry: the next generation,
the Royal Society of Chemistry, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1J 0BA.
James Berressem
Chemistry: hands free and hands-on!
Liquid crystal displays
Students learn how liquid crystals are produced, and examine them under a polarising microscope. They see how liquid crystals manipulate plane-polarised light and respond to electric fields, properties which allow the kind of displays found in modern mobile phones.
Design your own solar cell
Students try and build the most efficient solar cell using natural photosensitisers such as fruit juices.
Make your own electric polymer
Conducting polymers are key to the next generation of electronic display devices. Using electrochemistry students deposit their own electroactive polyaniline films. Once the films are formed students can change the properties of the film by changing the electrode potential. Using this technique students can make films that switch between four different colours.
Making computer chips the nanotechnology way
Nanotechnology, and its application in microprocessor technology, is an area of chemistry essential to the future development of advanced electronics. Students get to experience photolithography first hand and ‘burn’ their own computer chips.
Biotechnology greens plastics!
Biodegradable polymers are a green alternative for use as future materials. Students learn about biodegradable plastics and sustainability and get the opportunity to use enzymes to break down some plastics.
