Last Thursday saw Chemistry Society members compete in the Royal Society of Chemistry Competition, which runs over three sessions. Their challenge was to analyse ingredients for the qualities that make truly excellent fish and chips!!
The competition aims to allow students across the country to demonstrate and expand on their existing chemistry knowledge, skills, and aptitude for analytical science through practical experiments. The pupils’ results will be marked over the three sessions and the Oakham school winning team will be entered into the regional heat to be in with the chance of winning a prize.
Director of Chemistry, Joanne Griffiths, said, “The majority of our A-level Form 6 Chemists and all of our Higher level IB Diploma 6th formers turned out for this initial session. The chip supper went down very well providing much needed energy to work through the two hour practical challenge. Vinegar analysis was the order of the day and I was impressed with all of the teams. Excellent precision and attention to detail was seen, albeit with occasional slip ups along the way!”
Joanne continued, “It is so wonderful to be back developing students’ skills in this way as Chemistry is such an inherently practical science. There was definitely a real competitive spirit to the event as well. As we look forward to the next sessions analysing the potatoes for chips and flour for the batter, it will be exciting to find out who will be crowned Oakham’s analytical chemistry team of the year. We really appreciate the efforts of Northumbria university, Newcastle along with The Royal Society of Chemistry for setting up this opportunity.”
In Oakham’s Upper School, students can study Chemistry at A-level or the International Baccalaureate. The Department runs a rich programme of Chemistry Society (ChemSoc) lectures, workshops and seminars, and practical extension sessions.
