International chemistry outreach
175 minutes for chemistry
University of Otago outreach co-ordinator Dave Warren explains how he and his chemistry outreach colleagues spent three weeks in July 2016 travelling in Taiwan and Malaysia.
We worked with a range of teachers and students from high achieving final year high school pupils to 14 year-olds at the most remote school on the island of Borneo.
We used flexible, open ended activities that could be used with a range of year groups, each taking something different from the activity.
The aim of the trip was to show how we work with classes and break the session down, so it’s not teacher-led but focused on student enquiry. The team in Sarawak, a Malaysian state on Borneo, have done over 3,000 hours of voluntary outreach during their time at Otago, yet they have all described the trip as ‘life-changing’.
Below is a brief summary of their impressions from the trip.
Sean Mackay (final year PhD)
PVA-Borax is an experiment we run with all year groups in New Zealand tweaking its content from fantastic simplicity for juniors to more intriguing complexity for senior students; and our time in both Taiwan and Malaysia was no exception to this.
The experiment demonstrates the concept of tough hydrogels – an area of intense research interest both globally and within our department.
Students create a typically weak hydrogel using PVA cross-linked with borax, which can be toughened to varying degrees through the simple addition of quantities of starch.
No matter what year level, from junior students to high school teachers, the reaction to touching and stretching the toughened gel for the first time is always the same - pure delight.
Sage Robinson (1st year PhD)
I found the trip very rewarding and a huge amount of fun. There were many challenges posed with teaching chemistry in a different country, from the change in climate to the varying degrees of English comprehension. Despite this I thought the trip a huge success with both the outreach team and those that we engaged with learning lots.
I found the reactions and enthusiasm of both the students and teachers participating highly rewarding and believe that we had a big impact despite the short contact time.
I would love to go back and be involved with new groups as well as revisit those we saw on this trip to see the long term impact of our work.
Marina Roxburgh (RA and part-time MSc student)
Travelling to Kuching in Sarawak, Malaysia, with the chemistry outreach team was some of the most fun I’ve had working in science. We spent two weeks with over 500 students exploring science through colours, states of matter, fire, and making a big mess.
Everything was different: the heat, the language, the humidity – so we had to change how we taught accordingly.
The joy and inquisitiveness of the students, who had little practical experience with chemicals, drove us to show them more.
A highlight for me was being asked “what can I do with this?” which is a question I feel every scientist asks themselves when they make a new discovery.
Geoffrey Weal (1st year PhD)
In chemistry outreach it is important to work as a team. I have learnt this is especially important when working away from Otago.
In Taiwan we managed an outreach experiment involving over 180 students, at IPG (Institut Pendidikan Guru –Teachers training College) we worked together to find resources for outreach activities after our gear from New Zealand was delayed, and at SMK Balleh (a remote secondary school in Sarawak, Malaysia) we had a lot of activities to organise for students of varying ages.
This all required the team to work together and trust each other as well as our hosts from Taiwan and Sarawak.
Sam Sutherland (1st year PhD)
My main focus on the trip was our first week in Taiwan, where I presented my work on tough hydrogels to the class. The best thing about the hydrogel experiment was the contrast of the two parts. The first part was making PVA/Borax slime, and then adding starch to make it more resilient and stretchy.
This illustrates how different polymer interactions can become greater than the sum of their parts. The second part was the creation of a stress-strain curve of a NIPAM (a type of smart polymer) tough hydrogel.
There was such amazement on the students’ faces as they were shown that a 5 ml hydrogel sample can easily support 500 g of mass.
Jacqui Kao (ex-student, now Science Communicator based in Melbourne)
On this outreach trip, we brought our chemistry to share with students and teachers in Taiwan and Malaysia. We did everything from simple kitchen chemistry, to playing with some fun stuff straight out of the university research labs.
It was an absolute pleasure to see everyone involved having a great time. I was very glad that we were able to provide the kids a bit of a break from the strict, often lecture-based and exam-laden school environment to just relax and enjoy science.
This trip has been nothing short of a life-changing adventure for this budding science communicator!
175 minutes for chemistry
As the oldest chemical society in the world, we celebrated our 175th anniversary in 2016. We wanted to mark this milestone by recognising the important contributions our community makes to the chemical sciences. We asked our members and supporters to dedicate 175 minutes to chemistry in 2016 and share their stories with us. We featured these stories throughout the year on our website, in print in RSC News, and on social media using #time4chem.
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