Meet the Universities with chemnet 

To help sixthform chemistry students decide which chemistry course to study at what university, ChemNet, the Royal Society of Chemistry's (RSC) initiative aimed at supporting 16-18-year old chemistry students, will be running a Meet the universities  event at the University of Birmingham on Saturday 7 July 2007. This informal event will bring together representatives from over 20 UK universities which offer chemical science courses. Students will have the opportunity to meet with university staff and undergraduates, and attend workshops on, for example, how to fill in a UCAS application. 

Admission will be free for ChemNet members and accompanying teachers and parents, and pre-registration is required. Students who have not yet joined ChemNet but want to attend the meeting can pay £10 either in advance or on the day, which will cover admission and include a year's membership to ChemNet.  

Students can book online for the event. For further information on this event and the ChemNet initiative contact Dr Robert Bowles, ChemNet Executive at the Royal Society of Chemistry. 

Online Olympiad 

This summer teachers can encourage their AS chemistry students to have a go at the Royal Society of Chemistry's (RSC) online chemistry Olympiad competition.  

Hosted on the RSC website (www.rsc.org/olympiad), the test comprises 40 multiple-choice questions. For each test the questions and answers are presented at random so any number of students can take the test at the same time. Students with an e-mail address can log on, take the test, and then receive, via e-mail, feedback on their performance. This is intended to help improve students' understanding and learning. 

Prizes will be awarded to the best performing students, who the RSC will encourage to enter the UK round one of the International Chemistry Olympiad competition. The online competition will run from 11 June to 28 September. To take part students must enter the password 'rsc' and test number '2007'. 

Maths for chemistry

The Higher Education Academy (HEA) Physical Sciences Centre, in collaboration with the Royal Society of Chemistry's (RSC) education department, will be running a Maths for chemistry  meeting on 5 June at Manchester Metropolitan University. This informal meeting will give participants the opportunity to hear about the development of new resources to support the teaching of mathematics to undergraduates studying chemistry and related subjects, and discuss the challenges facing HE teachers. 

The afternoon's programme will start with a talk from Paul Yates of Keele University, who will give his views on teaching mathematics in a chemical context. Coventry University's Peter Samuels will introduce new resources and technologies designed to support the teaching of mathematics. Participants will also hear from Dudley Shallcross of Bristol University where the department of chemistry has developed a successful course designed to teach maths in the context of chemistry to non-A-level chemists.  

Registration for the event is free for those working in HE in the UK. To register online for this event visit the HEA Physical Science website.

More meetings on HE science education

In June the HEA Physical Sciences Centre, in collaboration with partner organisations, will be running several meetings relevant to teachers of science subjects in HE. These include the Science learning and teaching conference 2007  and Recent changes to 16-19 science qualifications  meeting to be held at Keele University on 19-20 June and 21 June respectively.  

In addition to these events, the HEA Physical Sciences Centre and the RSC tertiary education group will be supporting the 2nd European variety in chemistry education conference  to be held 27-30 June at the Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic. Open to teachers working in HE, chemical education researchers as well as doctoral students, this biennial event will provide a forum for the exchange of ideas on teaching and learning chemistry at degree level, the sharing of good practice and innovation, and the dissemination of recent chemical education research relating to HE chemistry. Among the main topics for the meeting are chemistry for non-chemists, research-based chemical education, the role of secondary schools and colleges in preparing students for chemistry education in HE, and chemistry education in the context of the Bologna Process. For further information on these events visit website.

Snap up free software

Teachers are invited to download free of charge the Crocodile science player 2007  software, produced by Crocodile Clips. The package allows users to simulate 12 science experiments, four of which are new this year. Chemistry-related experiments include extracting metal ores by reduction with carbon, acid-alkali titrations using different reagents, and transition metals and their reactions with water and acids. The simulations can be presented on an interactive whiteboard or on individual computers.  

Additional new features include six flexible simulation laboratories, which allow users to model freely experiments, such as titrations and dissolving, as they want. To download the Crocodile science player 2007  log onto Crocodile Clips website.