Outreach events with Scouts, Guides, Cubs and Brownies

Chemistry Week 2018

Dr Simon Collinson, a lecturer at the Open University, ran a magical evening of chemistry outreach, including making slime and turning copper to 'gold'.

By Dr Simon Collinson

We obtained a grant from the RSC Outreach fund to develop an outreach event during Chemistry Week. This engaging evening activity was run twice, aiming to involve a range of young people via local scout, brownie and guides groups. The first group was from Newport Pagnell and the second from Helmdon near Brackley.

The Open University chemists developed fun activities to assist the children towards gaining a badge – such as the Scientist Activity Badge – by doing some experiments in the Open University teaching labs. The two evenings involved children ranging in age from eight to 15 – an excellent age group to interest in chemistry. The hands-on activities were testing for ions in water samples (so we could discuss water quality and pollution), turning copper coins into 'gold' (so we could talk about the reactions of metals) and making slime (to enable discussing polymers and their properties). The evening was finished off with an excellent demonstration lecture entitled The Magic of Oxygen by Drs Janes and Batham.

We received some great comments from parents:

"Jacob said the Science night was good. He especially liked making the gold coin – a process he'd not seen before and told me at length how he'd achieved the colour change. Thank you, Jacob was inspired!"

"Really fun time, great hand on experiments she particularly enjoyed the slime and coins. The people were friendly and welcoming."

"Kyle had a great time. Kyle loves this type of activity. Making science fun is a great way to learn."

"Thank you to everyone that arranged and helped at our science evening. I really enjoyed the evening and found it educational. Science is my favourite subject at school. I now have a gold 2p coin – it must be with a fortune!"

"Chase loved it, he was buzzing about it, loved the fact only his coin turned gold."