News

Formula for fun at Queen’s Campus

(8 April 2005)

There will be a fun-filled day of chemistry for 60 students from 15 schools in the Tees Valley, Durham and Yorkshire regions, at the Salters’ Festival of Chemistry to be held at Durham University’s Queen’s Campus Stockton on Thursday 14 April 2005.

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

During the morning the teams will take part in Salty’s Challenge, which will allow them to use their analytical chemistry skills in a competitive, hands-on, practical activity.

In the afternoon they will be able to show their problem skills further when they compete in the “University Challenge”, a practical activity chosen by the NEPIC Science Education team.

The entertainment doesn’t stop, because following that, Dr David Hodgson will give a fun lecture involving the children in extracting DNA from a kiwi fruit.

At the Prizegiving, at the end of the day, the winning teams will be awarded cash prizes for their schools and all participants will receive individual prizes and participation certificates provided by The Salter’s Institute.

The Salters’ Festivals of chemistry, an initiative by the Salters’ Institute, aims to promote the appreciation of chemistry and related sciences among the young.

This Festival, at Durham University’s Queen’s Campus Stockton will be organised by the NEPIC Science Education Team, and is one of a series of forty-eight festivals taking place at Universities throughout the UK and Ireland between March and June 2005.

The Institute is delighted that the Royal Society of Chemistry is working in partnership with them for the Festivals this year.

This Festival is sponsored by BASF plc, Seal Sands. The following companies are sending representatives to act as judges for the activities: BASF plc, ConocoPhillips, Dow Chemicals, Huntsman Tioxide, ICI Materials Science Group, Lucite International and Petroplus.

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For more information please contact:

Leila Elliott TCI Science Education Unit Tel No: (01642) 868682 E-mail: Leila.Elliott@teesci.co.uk

Miss Lesley Grout Communications Manager The Salters’ Institute Tel No: 020 7628 5962 ext 260 E-mail: publicity@salters.co.uk Website:www.festivalsofchemistry.co.uk

Editors Notes:

1. The Festivals are one-day events for schools held at Universities throughout the UK and Ireland. The first series of Festivals was held in 1991. Festivals were then held in 1992, 1994, 1996, and 2000. Since 2000 Festivals have been held every year. In 2005 there will a series of forty-eight Festivals between March and June. The aim of the festivals is to make chemistry more exciting, more relevant and fun to students aged 11 to 13 years and to encourage schools to set up their own chemistry clubs.

2. Competing schools are represented by a team of four students from years 7 or 8 (or equivalent in Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland). Cash prizes for the winning schools totalling £350 are awarded at each Festival and all participants receive fun prizes and certificates. During the last four years over 7,000 students have experienced the fun of practical chemistry through the Salters’ Festivals of Chemistry.

3. Since 1991 sponsorship in support of the Festivals has been raised from over one hundred companies. Many of the Festivals are also sponsored by local companies.

4. The Salters’ Company is one of the Great Twelve City of London Livery Companies and was founded in 1394 for the mediaeval trade in salt. The Company’s activities today are centred on charitable and educational giving. The Salters’ Institute, established in 1918, and now the Flagship Charity of the Salters’ activities, aims to promote the appreciation of chemistry and related sciences among the young and to encourage careers in the teaching of chemistry and in the UK chemical and allied industries.

5. The Institute’s three core activities are the Salters’ Chemistry Clun and the Salters’ Festivals of Chemistry for 11 to 14 year olds; Salters’ Chemistry Camps for those aged 15, in partnership with other scientific institutions, and Curriculum Development. Undertaken at the University of York, including Salters GCSE Science and Twenty First Century Science and Salters’ Advanced Chemistry, Salters’ Horners Advanced Physics and Salters’-Nuffield Advanced Biology.