Schoolchildren 'pitch-up' for the Salters' Chemistry Camp

Notes to editors:

• The Camps are residential events held at 11 universities throughout the UK. The first Camps were held in 1998. The aim of the Camps is to develop both awareness of and a long-term interest in the subject through an action-packed week's programme which includes hands-on practical work in the university labs, together with lectures, an interesting site visit to a local company and a variety of social activities in the evenings.
• Each Camp hosts fifty 15-year olds from a variety of schools across the country. Each school can nominate two candidates to attend a Camp. The Camps are staffed by a University Host, a Lead Teacher and a team of five teachers. The pupils and teachers are accommodated in a University Hall of Residence. During the last five years over 2,000 students have experienced life at a Salters' Chemistry Camp. Another 550 students will join this total in 2006.
• Since 1998 sponsorship in support of the Camps has been raised from over forty companies. The Salters Chemistry Camp at The University of York is sponsored by:
  • The Salters Institute
  • Croda
  • The Armourers and Brasiers' Company
  • AstraZeneca
  • The Biological and Medicinal Chemistry Sector (of the RSC)
  • Biorad
  • The Company of Merchant Adventurers of the City of York
  • The Association for the British Pharmaceutical Industry
  • Institution of Chemical Engineers
  • The Royal Society and The Royal Society of Chemistry.
• 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. The Institute's three core activities are the Salters Chemistry Club and 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.
• Other Institute activities include: The Salters’ Graduate Prizes, Salters-Nuffield Advanced Biology Prizes, Salters Advanced Chemistry Prizes, Salters Horners Advanced Physics Prizes, Salters' City and Guilds Prizes, and annual events including a Seminar hosted on behalf of the Chemical Education Group (the eleven major institutions involved with Chemical Education), Chemistry and the Law Lecture in association with Mayer, Brown, Rowe and Maw and culminating with the Salters' Awards Ceremony which is held in December of each year at Salters' Hall.
• For more information please contact: Miss Lesley Grout, The Communications Manager, The Salters' Institute, Tel: 020 7628 5962 ext 260, E-mail: publicity@salters.co.uk Website: www.chemistrycamps.co.uk
• The Department of Chemistry at the University of York has an excellent reputation for teaching and research. In the last Research Assessment Exercise the department was awarded a 5 rating. It is led by Royal Society of Chemistry prize-winners in all three branches of physical, organic and inorganic chemistry. It has 46 members of academic staff, more than 380 undergraduate students, 150 graduates and 90 research fellows.