Record-breaking month for ChemLabS outreach

A scene from ‘A Pollutant’s Tale’. Tim Harrison, Bristol ChemLabS School Teacher Fellow, demonstrates the freezing of a banana by dipping it into liquid nitrogen. A member of the audience is often encouraged to shatter it with a hammer behind a protective shield.

6 May 2009

Bristol ChemLabS, one of the University’s two Centres for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETLs), had a record month for outreach activities in March, with the total number of face-to-face engagements at a record high of 9,245.

On three occasions during the month, three outreach activities were held in different parts of the UK at the same time, and in one week, three events took place in three countries (France, South Africa and the UK) simultaneously. In addition, school students and undergraduates took part in outreach events in Spain, while an Italian school group visited both the University’s CETLs – Bristol ChemLabS and AIMS – for a spring science school.

Bristol ChemLabS has compiled some impressive statistics for the month’s activities:

36 lecture demonstrations were given on ‘A Pollutant’s Tale’, 13 on ‘Gases in the Air’, one on ‘A Chemical Delight’, two on ‘Perfume Chemistry’, two on ‘Fireworks Chemistry’ and two related to ‘Climate Change’;
students taking part in outreach activities ranged from four years old to postgraduates;
66 schools took part in engagement events;
120 students experienced working in the undergraduate teaching laboratories;
the biggest audience at any one event was 930 and the smallest was 20;
800 students experienced outreach in the School of Chemistry at Bristol, with other events taking place at three other universities in Spain and South Africa;
31 Bristol and two non-Bristol chemists were directly involved;
talks on outreach were given to representatives from five universities one in Spain and four in South Africa.

Professor Dudley Shallcross, Outreach Director of Bristol ChemLabS, said, ‘I am immensely proud of the achievements of Bristol ChemLabS Outreach. The volume of activity, providing opportunities for hands-on activities for a wide age range of recipients, is impressive. However, the quality and impact of these activities is even more impressive. We have assembled a high-quality team, including science communication experts such as Tim Harrison and Dr Alison Rivett, an army of highly skilled postgraduate students and first-class technical and secretarial support. The unwavering support from the senior management team in Chemistry has been fully justified.’