Salters Festival of Chemistry teaches students from local schools about science

64 students from 16 schools in the local area enjoyed an exciting day of chemistry at the Salters' Festival of Chemistry on campus on Tuesday 12 April.

Each school was represented by a team of four 11-13 year olds.

During the morning the teams took part in a competitive, hands-on, practical activity, “The Salters’ Challenge” – “Murder comes to Salterstown” in which they used their analytical chemistry skills. 

In the afternoon, they completed in the “University Challenge”, a practical activity chosen by the University, in which they were required to solve a “mess” in the teaching labs where several unlabelled samples had been found. This was followed by a fun lecture by Dr Richard Blackburn who took the students on a chemical tour of the elements with many bangs, flashes and colours along the way.

The day ended with a Prizegiving at which all participants were given individual fun prizes and participation certificates and the winning teams were awarded prizes for their schools.

The Salters' Festivals of Chemistry are an initiative of The Salters' Institute, whose aim is to promote the appreciation of chemistry and related sciences amongst the young, and to encourage careers in the teaching of chemistry and in the UK chemical and allied industries.