Coventry FabLab

Our aims were to connect the younger generation and their families to the relevance of chemistry in everyday life, and to increase chemists’ visibility in the community and their interactions with chemistry students and RSC local section members. We also aim to increase the confidence of the public in discussing chemistry and remove any barriers to their appreciation of the involvement of chemistry in our everyday lives.

Each session was an hour long and two or three activities took place during the hour.

Potato Battery Students had the chance to create a potato battery and understand the chemistry behind it. They were able to develop their own experiments to find out how many potatoes would give the brightest LED lights. They used voltmeters to measure the volts of each potato. One student mentioned the idea of lighting their Christmas tree with potato batteries!

Bubbling brew Students were able to create their own bubbling brew and make fun decorations with balloons, in an experiment aimed at demonstrating that some reactions produce gas. In this experiment baking soda and vinegar were mixed and CO2 was captured in the balloons. Students used MolyMod to show the molecules and the reaction between them.

UV beads The students prepared their own bracelet beads with UV sensitive beads and letter beads to spell out their name. Students were very excited to see the beads glow in the dark as well an understand the importance of sun cream used in the summer time.

Over 150 children and their families attended the two day event and the feedback has been very positive. More students see chemistry in a positive way and will consider studying chemistry in the future. Thank you to all our ambassadors and volunteers from Coventry University and the RSC West Midlands and Birmingham local section that came and helped. Another activity is planned for Mid-January and we are looking forward to seeing many more enthusiastic students of the future and their families.