‘Please look after these chemists’: chemistry busking alights at London Paddington
Member volunteers joined our South East education coordinators to spend a day illuminating, entertaining and informing hundreds of travellers at London Paddington station.
Commuters and holiday-makers were invited to try some quick and accessible activities on the chemistry of glow-sticks and UV colour-changing beads. They could also take part in a game of ‘guess the smell’, identifying scents such as ginger, spearmint and peppermint, and relating the smell to chemical structure, using molecular models.
Fifteen member volunteers from across industry, teaching and academia, supported coordinators Katie Nuttall and Chrissie Maitland, chatting to over 600 members of the public on the day.
Claire Gold, who works as a trainer and facilitator, was passing through the station with her two daughters: “My girls really like science and I saw there were women at the stand, and thought 'that's a good bit of role modelling, let's get them to talk to them'.
"I think it's good to break down the 'white coat' idea of science and scientific knowledge and make it more accessible. It's not something I'd usually expect to see here. It's nice to have it available for my daughters when they walk past, to be interested and learn something!”.
The busking built on the success of last year’s event, held at King’s Cross station, which was also led by Katie and Chrissie. “We kept things fairly similar because the feedback that we got was really positive,” said Katie. “We've added in the smell pots this year, with the usherette trays, which have been really popular.
“Last year we held it in Chemistry Week [in November], which was very cold and there was a suggestion of doing it when there were more holiday-makers around, so that's why we chose August this year.
“It's worked really well; the volunteers have been fantastic. There's been a lot of members who haven't had much experience, so it's been good for them to get some experience in outreach and hopefully they’ll carry on with more activities.”
Holding the busking in public places aims to reach a more diverse audience than you might find at traditional outreach events, such as science festivals and public lectures.
“The wide range of people that we've spoken to is a real highlight,” explains Katie. “If you hold an event at a science fair, which we've done a lot, people have self-selected; they're already interested in the science. The great thing about today is that you could be talking to Joe Bloggs who's not done chemistry since school and has never thought much about it. We're trying to reignite that interest with chemistry.”
Ryan Clark, a PhD student at Imperial College London, signed up to volunteer as he wants to bridge the gap between academia and the public: “There's not a huge amount of communication between chemists doing research and the general public, so it's good to try and build those bonds between people.
“It's been really enjoyable. There's been some characters, but most people have been very nice. Once you get people in, it's easy to talk to them.”
One such character was a particularly keen commuter who took advantage of a volunteer’s UV pen to secretly leave his phone number! We’re not sure if there was any chemistry of that kind between them, but we admire the ingenuity!
Khareen Singh, regulatory affairs officer at a flavouring and fragrance company, encourages more practising chemists to get involved in public outreach: “It reignites your passion for chemistry, because once you go into the working world, you might get into a routine where your chemistry is not challenged as much. I think it's brilliant to be able to volunteer and share that passion with other people.”
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