New residential camp run at Bristol University offers students who are considering studying for a degree in chemistry in the UK the opportunity to experience being in a chemistry department
Twenty Year 12 students from schools in the south and west of England and in Wales attended the inaugural University Chemistry Experience Camp held at the University of Bristol's school of chemistry in July. Sponsored by Bristol ChemLabS and the RSC-managed Chemistry for our future (CFOF) programme, as part of its Better use of labs project, the event aims to give students who are considering studying for a degree in chemistry in the UK the opportunity to experience being in a chemistry department for a few days.
Organised by Tim Harrison, the Bristol ChemLabS school teacher fellow, the two-day residential camp offers potential chemistry undergraduates the opportunity to stay on campus in halls of residence. Over the two days, the students extracted caffeine from tea, prepared and analysed an anaesthetic and got to use uv-vis and ir spectrometers to determine the concentration of and identify unknown solutions. Away from the lab bench Bristol chemists talked of the research they are involved in and the sixthformers learned more about universities' undergraduate admission procedures.
Sophie Morley of St Leonards-Mayfield School, Sussex commented, 'The research work sounded really interesting and made me want to continue doing chemistry at a higher level and to be a part of the work'. Harrison told Education in Chemistry, 'Following on from the success of this event we will be seeking to work with other universities to host similar camps'.
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