Secondary School Students Compete at the Annual Salters’ Festival of Chemistry
Posted on: 04 May 2010
The School of Chemistry welcomed school children from Dublin, Down, Monaghan and Wicklow recently (April 24th) to enjoy a fun-filled day of chemistry as part of the 2010 Salters’ Festival of Chemistry run in partnership with the Royal Society of Chemistry. The 11-13 year olds worked in teams of four and used their analytical and practical chemistry skills to take part in two scientific challenges.
In the morning the first challenge given to the children was a scenario based exercise where teams attempted to solve the Mysterious Death of Captain Salter by using forensic chemistry to identify a number of white powders present at the scene of the crime and then had to match these to substances present on the suspects in order to isolate the killer. In the afternoon students had to do a series of hands-on experiments for the ‘University Challenge’ which involved using Bunsen burners, magnets and vacuum filters to separate out and measure the various substances from a mixture made up of iron, sand, chalk, salt and smelling salts.
Speaking about the event Dr Michael Bridge, lecturer in TCD’s School of Chemistry said: “The Salters’ Festival of Chemistry is a unique opportunity for these pupils to acquire hands-on experience of a university chemistry laboratory and to see that as well as being useful, science can be fun. Their scientific knowledge was very impressive and I hope the activities have encouraged a curiosity in chemistry and the sciences.”
The children also attended a lecture by teacher John Daly from Blackrock College called ‘Chem-Mystry’ where a number of substances were combined to create a series of colourful and noisy demonstrations. The day’s events concluded with a prize giving ceremony where all participants received prizes and certificates. The prizes were presented by Dr Siobhan Murphy of Pharmaceutical Ireland, one of the sponsors of the day. Taking first prize in the forensic competition was St Colmcille’s Community School, Knocklyon. St Columba’s College, Dublin took second place and St Joseph’s Secondary School, Rush took third. The ‘University Challenge’ was won by St Raphaela’s Secondary School, Stillorgan. Second place went to Our Lady’s School, Terenure, and third place went to Arklow Community College, Wicklow.
The Salters’ Festival of Chemistry are one day events for schools held at universities throughout the UK and Ireland and are an initiative of The Salters’ Institute, which aims to promote the appreciation of chemistry and related sciences among young people. The festival at Trinity College Dublin is one of 51 festivals which are taking place at universities throughout the UK and Ireland between March and June 2010.