Celebrating 40 years of 'Chemical Magic'
175 minutes for chemistry - Chemistry Week
Ray and Rosemary Plevey delivered their renowned ‘Chemical Magic’ show for the 40th year running to sixth form students from across the West Midlands.
The show combines classic flash-bang chemistry demonstrations with the theatrical tricks and sleight of hand that are more often associated with magic shows than scientific lectures.
Ray Plevey began presenting the lecture in 1976 with a colleague, but for the last 25 years, he has performed the show with his wife and fellow chemist, Rosemary Plevey. Organised by the West Midlands Chemistry Teachers Centre (WMCTC), in association with the Royal Society of Chemistry (through the P.F.Frankland Memorial Trust) and the School of Chemistry at the University of Birmingham, the lecture was attended by approximately 300 sixth form students from schools across the region.
To recognise the incredible 40-year milestone, Jill Oldfield, chair of the WMCTC, presented Ray and Rosemary with an ornament containing crystals of zirconium (zirconium being the 40th element in the periodic table) and a personal letter from our president Professor Sir John Holman, thanking them for their services to the chemical sciences.
A visual experience
With plenty of quirky chemistry puns, gentle slapstick and audience participation, Ray and Rosemary delighted the students with demos that included turning water into red wine, white wine and milk; fluorescent beer; and creating fire from water.
“It’s meant to be a visual experience” explains Ray, “we don’t talk that much about the chemistry involved and we didn’t in the early days. You’re really encouraging students to look, observe and think ‘is it obvious what’s going on? Is my chemical experience adequate to explain it or do I need to ask the teacher on the way home?’ I suppose we’re trying to hint that there’s a bit of magic in it – of course there isn’t at all. It’s a light hearted demonstration which people seem to enjoy and it seems to be popular with lots of different audiences.”
Sixth form student Umar from King Edward VI Camp Hill Boys School in Birmingham said: “It was really interesting and the theatrics were great. It was a lot more engaging than other lectures I’ve been to, and a lot more interactive. My favourite bit was when Rosemary broke the flowers that had been frozen in liquid nitrogen – that was really funny!”
From simple beginnings to the Royal Institution
The show developed from an initial presentation that Ray and his colleague were asked to give to a school in the mid-1970s. Research chemists and teachers at the University of Birmingham, the pair gathered chemicals and equipment from the lab for what they thought would be a one-off demo. However, it was so popular that more invitations to present started coming in, and, through Ray’s association with the WMCTC, the show became part of their programme of events for sixth form students.
The duo had to turn down some invitations for logistical reasons – transporting all of their chemicals and complex equipment was quite a mission in those days. But there was one invitation they couldn’t refuse – the chance to present the lecture at the Royal Institution in London. “We felt we couldn’t really say no to that,” says Ray, “so we went and that was a lovely experience.”
A family affair
In the early 1990s, Ray’s colleague was unable to continue the shows, so Ray initially tried to carry on as a solo act, but found the complex preparation and changeovers too tricky to manage alone. His wife Rosemary, whom he had met as a student at Birmingham University, was a chemistry teacher at the time and helped Ray with a presentation at a conference for teachers by the Association of Science Education. She has been presenting the shows with Ray ever since.
While the basic content of the lecture has remained the same, Ray and Rosemary are constantly tweaking their routine and adding new surprises for their audiences. “All the demos are really quite old experiments. They’re classic experiments but hopefully done in a novel sort of way” says Ray. “But the message of observing and thinking and saying ‘how could I do that?’ hasn’t changed since we first started. We just hope the sixth formers listen and appreciate that chemistry is really just about being curious.”
Engaging the younger generation
Ray and Rosemary have presented the show across the UK and Ireland as well as at events in France, the Netherlands and Guernsey. The audience is usually sixth form students and teachers but they have also done some family shows. Ray explains his motivation for continuing the shows for such a remarkable length of time: “It lets me still do a bit of chemistry so that’s my sort of selfish motivation. Even though I’m doing repetitive things, I still really enjoy doing it. It’s also nice to get out and be around younger people – as you get older you realise that if you’re not careful, your social mix is all old people, so any opportunity to take it down a generation or two and interact is really enjoyable.”
Further information
The West Midlands Chemistry Teachers Centre was founded in 1969 as part of a government initiative. Around 30 centres were created across the country, but the WMCTC is now the last chemistry teacher’s centre in the UK. It brings together representatives from our local section and regions team in the Midlands, as well as those from the Association for Science Education, members of university chemistry and chemical engineering departments in the region, and teachers from local schools.
The WMCTC run a programme of activities for schools in the area each term, unifying activities that the university, ASE and Royal Society of Chemistry might have done separately. You can find more information about the WMCTC on their website: www.wmctc.co.uk.
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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