Liverpool Hope University

Chemistry at Work came to Liverpool Hope University 17th March 2004. 300 pupils from 11 primary schools in the area attended. The event was so popular that all the schools were chosen from ones that failed to get a place the year before.

There were four main activities.

A team from Daresbury research laboratories showed the pupils the coldest thing they had ever seen - liquid nitrogen at around 200 degrees below zero! The children saw a frozen daffodil shatter like glass and tasted instant strawberry ice cream cooled by the liquid nitrogen - delicious.

In another hall, staff and students from the university set up a 'murder mystery' that students had to solve by looking for clues including footprints and fingerprints. 

In the laboratory, small groups of students tried out a variety of hands-on experiments supervised by student teachers from the university and representatives from local chemistry companies and the Institute of Materials. These included:

• What is water made of?
• Making slime.
• Metals that remember their shape.
• Making gases.
• Reactions that give out heat.  
  

and many more.

For many, the highlight was a theatre piece by drama students Laura Warrington, Louise Widdowson and Peter Connor which told the story of some famous chemists including Cavendish, Rutherford and Nobel and finished by singing the Periodic Table.

Thanks are due to Liverpool Hope University for hosting the event and to Lois Kelly, her colleagues and students for organising it and to all the companies and other organisations that supported it.