Yardleys School, Birmingham

Chemistry at Work was held in the second city for the first time for some years on 16 March 2004. The venue was Yardleys School close to the city centre and the whole of year ten took part. An astonishing 13 organisations gave presentations on topics ranging from treating sewage to chemistry in sport and paint to matching fingerprints.

The organisations were:

• Sport by Design - how chemistry helps sportsmen and women
• Birmingham City Laboratories - what you don't want to find in your sandwich
• Direct Laboratories - analytical chemistry used to help clean up soil
• Rhodia Specialities - how the chemistry of phosphorus affects all our lives
• The Association of Oil and Colour Chemists - how chemistry makes our lives more colourful
• Severn Trent Water - supplying clean water and cleaning up our waste
• STL Analytical
• AST Aston - chemical engineering
• The City Hospital
• Birmingham Heartlands Hospital
• The West Midlands Police - using chemistry to detect crime
• Yuasa Batteries - designing and making car batteries
• Jaguar Cars - how materials from steel to xenon are used in cars  

Thanks are due to Angela Reid of Connexions Birmingham and Solihull and John Roden of Yardleys School for their organisational work.