Toilet chemistry
175 minutes for chemistry: Chemistry Week
A group of sixth form students from across the Midlands visited the Coventry site of ALS Environmental to explore the chemistry down your toilet.
The 17 and 18 year olds were treated to a tour of ALS Environmental’s state-of-the-art facilities on Torrington Avenue in Coventry, and discovered the array of chemical tests and analysis that are needed to make our waste water safe.
They learned about a new technique being developed to look for vanishingly small quantities of a contaminant in water. "It’s equivalent to looking for one drop of water in 44 Olympic swimming pools!" explained Andy Horobin, organic chemistry operations manager at ALS Environmental, who delivered the talk.
The students, who were all studying for their A-levels and BTEC at Warwickshire College in Leamington Spa, Landau Forte Academy Sixth Form in Tamworth and Sponne School in Towcester, Northants, also heard from members of staff from all areas of the business, which was a great opportunity to learn where a career in chemistry could take them.
Feedback from teachers was very positive with 100% of staff reporting that they felt better equipped to advise students on careers pathways from chemistry following the event.
Helen Ramsden, chemistry teacher at Sponne School, Towcester said "This has been a fabulous day. Just perfect. And very good for the students to make links with industry."
ALS Environmental is responsible for checking waste water quality for half the country, and has sites throughout England. The company also performs important chemical tests for clients ranging from decontamination of land to detecting legionella bacteria.
Chris Law, inorganic chemistry operations manager at ALS Environmental and member of the Royal Society of Chemistry, who was helping out on the day as part of his #time4chem, spoke to students about some of the analytical techniques performed by ALS for customers.
He also explained the importance of these visits for companies such as ALS: "This kind of thing is vital to us as a company. We take on plenty of school leavers as employees so it’s great to meet them today and understand what they’re studying at school."
Nick Barsby, sales and marketing manager at ALS said: "This visit is so important to us. As a company, ALS Environmental sees investment in staff as a top priority, and this is just taking that one step further. It’s great to be able to share our facilities with the next generation of scientists."
Selina Kermode, Royal Society of Chemistry education coordinator for the Midlands, based at the University of Warwick, said: "Today has been wonderful. It’s great to be able to get students out of the classroom to make connections between what they’re learning and real-life situations and ALS has done that brilliantly."
The visit was organised by the Royal Society of Chemistry and took place on Friday 25 November as part of Chemistry Week.
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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