National Eisteddfod 2018
34 volunteers brought chemistry to the largest cultural festival in Europe.
AUTHORS: Dayna Mason and Delwen McCallum
Education coordinator Dayna Mason and the South East Wales local section coordinated a stand at the National Eisteddfod in Cardiff, an eight-day outreach marathon that was made possible by a small army of member volunteers.
The Eisteddfod is the largest Welsh-language festival in the world, consisting of tradition, art, poetry, music and science, and each year it moves to a different location in Wales. For the last 8 years the RSC has held a stand in the science pavilion with all Welsh local sections involved.
This year the event was in Cardiff, which made it a bit different from previous years. It’s normally in a field and visitors buy day- or week-tickets to attend. However, because it was in a town this year, entry was free and anyone could come along, which opened it up to new audiences.
We had 34 volunteer members helping us on the stand over the 8 days. Some came from local industry, some came as individuals, and some were from the university – undergrads, postgrads, academics, support staff and professors.
One member volunteer, Wynne Davis, is 86 and has been a member for 60 years. He came along for the best part of a day, was a Welsh speaker and was really good to have with us. He said: "At my age I was very happy to be in the company of such enthusiastic young members, and to see the reaction of the young visitors" "Yn fy oedran, roeddwn yn falch iawn o fod yng nghwmni aelodau ifanc mor frwdfrydig, ac i weld ymateb yr ymwelwyr ifanc."
Two of the activities were member favourites: Magic Sand – sand that doesn't get wet; and a Guess the Smell game, where we linked the smells of different foods to their chemical structures.
It was great to talk to the young children, but it was also a good way of connecting with adults.
We tried to encourage adults to realise that they are doing chemistry all the time – for example when they're cooking. It was good to hear comments like “that’s fascinating” or “I wish chemistry was like that when I was at school”.
The other activities we had were linked to metal organic frameworks (MOFs) – quite high level research chemistry presented in an accessible way.
We had three MOF activities. The first was a simulation of self-assembly using Zoobs – a construction toy made of blocks that fit together in particular ways. Each visitor added a few blocks to a structure on the floor – over the week it grew from a small grid to a sprawling mass. This is similar to how a metal organic framework self-assembles in solution.
The second activity used a 3D Zoob grid that we'd put together to talk to people about how MOFs can self-assemble in an unstructured way and then reorder themselves over time. Structured MOFs can be used as sieves, and we illustrated this by dropping molecules of different shapes through the grid.
Finally, for the adults and older children we had a virtual reality headset, which enabled them to experience going inside a MOF.
It’s important that we continue to show chemistry in the science pavilion at the Eisteddfod and we’re very grateful to the many members who have volunteered their time over the years, and to the local section committees for working together each year to continue to inspire the future generation of chemists in Wales.
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