23rd November 2021
Chemistry and Geography students got together with a bang for an expert masterclass this month!
Delivered by Professor Tim Harrison and Dr Johnny Furze, it promised to be an exciting exploration of chemistry and a look into the subject in Higher Education.
Bristol ChemLabS ran the session as part of their outreach programme to inspire students of all ages to engage with chemistry.
The afternoon kicked off with a bang. Exciting demonstrations of the uses and dangers of liquid nitrogen saw Dr Johnny Furze crush and crumble a frozen rubber glove into pieces.
He then invited the students to speculate about the result of containing liquid nitrogen in small, airtight containers at room temperature - which saw many of the attendees thinking quickly to cover their ears, and for good reason!
Alongside some intriguing sights and experiments, the team covered a great number of topics, from Volatile organic Compounds to CO2 measurements in Bristol and the increase in global temperature.
Nicola Shaw, Chemistry teacher at St Brendan’s, said, “It was fantastic to have the team from BristolChemLabS in College, and to get the students from the two subjects together and really thinking about how Chemistry affects our everyday lives.”
“The afternoon was a big success. The students really enjoyed being outside of the classroom, and for many of them it was a great taste of what studying Chemistry might be like at University level.”
Find out more about studying chemistry at St Brendan's /404here.
