Young Chemistry Communicators Programme ongoing
For three years pupils and parents from local maintained primary schools have been invited to Withington Girls’ School to participate in a series of workshops which have culminated in an exciting science show.
Despite the limitations imposed by COVID, the year-12 girls planned, during lockdown, three kitchen chemistry shows. Two of the shows were delivered virtually to pupils of years 5 and 6 from St Teresa’s Primary School, and the third show was delivered to year 8 WGS pupils.
Aims
Young Chemistry Communicators is a project overseen by Techniquest Glyndwr, the prime aim of which is to inspire young people to study the subject.
The project is funded by school and the Sixth form participants who pay their gold crest award fee and a small contribution towards the reagents. For the first two years the programme was funded by the Royal Society of Chemistry.
Resources
Withington’s Head of Chemistry, with the support of the whole Chemistry department, oversees the event and the preparation for it beforehand. This includes running the weekly lunch time sessions with the Sixth form chemists, supervising their experiments, writing risk assessments, coordinating an assembly and the shows with the invaluable help of the chemistry technician.
Withington’s state-of-the-art science laboratories are used for the programme, which allows pupils from partner schools to access more advanced scientific experiments and equipment.
In 2021, the programme had to be significantly modified due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Two of the shows were delivered virtually to pupils of years 5 and 6 from St Teresa’s Primary School, and the third show was delivered to year 8 WGS pupils. At the point of presentation, all shows included a mix of live and recorded deliveries, adapted to suit the respective audiences. In addition, the St Teresa’s shows included practical opportunities for the children to make their very own lava lamps and slime.
To support the activities at St Teresa’s the Withington Lower Sixth communicators prepared a set of reagents and supporting documents, including a booklet of instructions for the children and their teachers, a certificate of achievement and questionnaires to assess their learning and, of course, their enjoyment of the shows.
The third show included a live delivery for two of the year 8 science classes, whereas the other two groups watched the show virtually in their classrooms. Each show had a slightly different twist and a different range of live and recorded activities.
Impact
The expertise and enthusiasm of the Sixth form Chemists and staff, combined with Withington’s facilities, create an exciting and dynamic experience of Chemistry for the maintained primary school children.
The programme also offers the Sixth Form volunteers the chance to develop their communication skills, whilst compounding their knowledge of and passion for Chemistry.
All Sixth form chemists taking part also won a gold crest award from the British Science Association upon completion of the project and writing a complete scientific report.
Pupil Involvement
In the first two years of the programme, around 15 girls from the Lower Sixth have volunteered, and in 2019 three teams took part in the initiative, making a total of 24 participants. Each team presented a spectacular Flash Bang Chemistry Show for an audience from a local maintained primary school.
Over 60 Year 5 and 6 pupils from local maintained primary schools attended the programme in the first three years, in 2017 from Old Moat Primary School and St Paul’s CofE Primary School, and in 2018 from Acacias Primary School and Longford Park Primary School. In 2019, pupils from Northenden Community Primary School and Mauldeth Road Primary School were the very enthusiastic audience.
Unfortunately after completing the preparation for the programme the three shows had to be cancelled the week before they were going to take place in March 2020.
In 2021, Year 5 and 6 pupils from St Teresa's and WGS's Year 8 watched the three performances.
Frequency
The programme has run annually in 2017, 2018 and 2019. In 2020 the shows had to be cancelled due to Covid but despite the Covid restrictions, three successful kitchen Chemistry shows took place in 2021.
