Posted on 23 March 1996
At the Festival teams of 11-14 year olds from Chemistry Clubs in the region will show their project work, demonstrate chemistry experiments and compete in a chemical 'egg race'. Winners from the 25 regional finals will present their work at the Grand Final to be held at Imperial College on 1 July 1998.
The Festivals of Chemistry are held every two years. They provide an opportunity for Chemistry Clubs from schools across the country to meet up and share their excitement for Chemistry. The Salters' Chemistry Club is an initiative of The Salters' Institute of Industrial Chemistry. The Club's main objective is to make chemistry more visible, more interesting and more attractive to pupils. The Festivals provide a focus for the Clubs' work and are seen as a celebration of chemistry.
Teams from 11 schools in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire will compete in the regional final:
Reporters and photographers are welcome between 10 am and 12 noon and between 1 and 2.30 pm.
The programme for the day will be:
09:00 onwards Clubs arrive to set up displays
10:00 Welcome
10:10 - 12:00 Judging and opportunity for visitors to view the displays
12:15 Lunch
13:00 Egg race
14:30 "Chemistry, Colour and Light
(a demonstration lecture by Dr Paul Walton)
15:00 Prize award ceremony
15:30 Refreshments
All of the events will be taking place in the Department of Chemistry at the University of York.
The Salters' Chemistry Club was established in 1991 as part of an initiative to encourage younger pupils, prior to their GCSE years, to capture the fun and relevance of chemistry. Its main aim is to make chemistry more visible, more interesting and more attractive to pupils in schools, especially those aged 11 to 14, by creating a network of chemistry clubs for extra-curricular practical chemistry which are linked into their local companies and universities. In the first six years of the Club's operation, over 6,000 children from over 500 schools experienced the fun of hands-on chemistry.
The Chemistry club activity in schools and especially the regional Festival events provide an opportunity for strong partnerships between schools and local industrial companies. The York Festival is being sponsored by BP Chemicals Ltd, Hull. They are giving the financial support for the running of the Festival, donating some of the prizes and providing two of the four judges. The two other judges are a school teacher and a lecturer from the University.