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Bristol ChemLabS Outreach Report

2014-15

Tim Harrison

(Bristol ChemLabS, Director of Outreach)

August 2015

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Contents Introduction and highlights ................................................................................................................................... 3

Secondary Outreach............................................................................................................................................... 5

Primary Outreach ................................................................................................................................................... 6

Wider Community Outreach.................................................................................................................................. 7

Examples of specific Outreach projects ................................................................................................................ 8

(a) RSC Small Outreach Grants: ‘Bristol ChemLabS Science Assemblies for Primary Schools in South

West England’ .................................................................................................................................................... 8

(a) Schools Projects/UAS Scheme............................................................................................................... 8

(b) Spectroscopy in a Suitcase Scheme (SIAS) ............................................................................................ 9

(c) British Council - Hong Kong ................................................................................................................... 9

Working with the Widening Participation Office, University of Bristol .............................................................. 9

(a) Access into Bristol ................................................................................................................................. 9

(b) Insight into Bristol ................................................................................................................................. 9

(c) Lecture Demonstrations ...................................................................................................................... 10

Working with other UK universities in Outreach ................................................................................................ 10

International Outreach: Home and away ....................................................................................................... 11

Publications during the academic year 2014-15 ................................................................................................. 13

Software ........................................................................................................................................................... 13

Papers and articles ........................................................................................................................................... 13

Press ................................................................................................................................................................. 13

Reviews ............................................................................................................................................................ 14

Specific sources of funding .................................................................................................................................. 15

‘Pay to Play’ ...................................................................................................................................................... 15

Research grants ................................................................................................................................................ 15

Other grants ..................................................................................................................................................... 15

(a) Project grants .................................................................................................................................. 15

(b) Widening Participation Grants via the Faculty of Science, UoB ..................................................... 15

Training of postgraduates .................................................................................................................................... 15

Other UoB projects supported by Bristol ChemLabS Outreach .......................................................................... 16

School Protein Workshop ............................................................................................................................ 16

Discovery of Novel Antibiotics from Fungi Workshops ................................................................................ 16

Schools-University Partnership Initiative (SUPI) .......................................................................................... 16

Miscellaneous Outreach activities ............................................................................................................... 16

Staff changes impacting on Outreach ................................................................................................................. 16

Challenges ............................................................................................................................................................ 17

Future plans ......................................................................................................................................................... 17

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Introduction and Highlights

Another busy academic year for Bristol ChemLabS Outreach in the School of Chemistry (SoC) has seen at least 28,450 people (including those from more than 670 primary and secondary schools) engaged in a wide range of activities in the UK (see Figure 1) and overseas. Engagements have been held all over England and Wales as well as in Ireland, Hong Kong, Australia, Malta and the Guadeloupe (Caribbean).

The Bristol ChemLabS Outreach Programme featured in a number of Case Studies submitted for the Research Excellence Framewrok REF 2014 exercise with the Case Study involving atmospheric chemistry given a rating of 4*, and thus recognised as ‘world-leading’.

External funding for Outreach has come from the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) Small Outreach Grants programme, University of Bristol (UoB) Faculty of Science Widening Participation Funding, a HEFCE outreach grant, the British Council, the UoB’s Widening Participation Office, the RSC Bristol and District Branch, Salters’ Chemistry, RSC’s Analytical Division, EDF Energy and the Primary Science Teaching Trust (PSTT).

Bookings for lab space were >85% full for the coming academic year (2015/16) by end of July 2015, mostly as a result of year-on-year repeat bookings - one sign of the impact and quality of such events.

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Figure 1: Counties in UK where engaged schools originate coded by school type.

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Secondary Outreach

"Tim! Huge congratulations. You made a real difference to loads of youngsters. Thanks." Bruce Robinson, Vice Principal, Plymouth UTC

During the most recent academic year (2014/15) there were 137 web-listed events involving 12,426

students from 484 identifiable schools. Not all schools are made known nor are all pupils engaged in

schools as there is always a small number of ‘home-schooled’ pupils at events. These events include

laboratory days at Bristol ChemLabS, lecture demonstrations in schools and other venues, chemistry

competitions, talks, spectroscopy tours, Chemistry Camps, Spectroscopy in a Suitcase (SIAS) visits and

laboratory design talks (for BTEC Science students!). A breakdown of engagements by year group is

shown in Figure 2 and the Table below.

Year Group(s) 13 12

Post 16 11 10

KS4 9 8 7 KS3

Mixed Secondary Age

Total Nos 195

1489 598

793

1261 322

1787

985

1459

1924 1591

Figure 2: Secondary school engagements broken down by year groupings where known

2%12%

5%

6%

10%

3%

14%8%

12%

15%

13%

Secondary Outreach Breakdown

Y13

Y12

Post 16

Y11

Y10

KS4

Y9

Y8

Y7

KS3

mixed sec age

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Primary Outreach

During 2014/15, there were 66 events organised for 10,912 pupils and teachers from 170 identified

schools during the year. These events were largely in the South of England and South Wales and were

mostly chemistry/science demonstration assemblies and workshops, with the vast majority being held

within host schools. There was only one visit to the SoC made by primary schools in this year; a school

from North London. A breakdown of engagements by year group is shown in Figure 3 and the Table

below.

“Your visit to our school and the work you did with the children was one of the highlights of the school

year. Despite the heat all the children were on task and every child was able to engage with the content

at his or her level.”

Organising teacher, Firs Farm Primary School, Enfield

41%

10%

8%

2%

1%

37%

0%0%1%

Primary Outreach Breakdown

whole school

Y6

Y5

Y4

Y3

KS2

Y2

Y1

KS1

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Who Whole School

Y6 Y5 Y4 Y3 KS2 Y2 Y1 KS1

Numbers

4447 1038 863 209 90 4085 30 30 120

Figure 3: Primary school engagements broken down by year groupings where known

In the previous academic year, 2013/14, there were 76 primary school visits with 13,063 primary pupils from the 176 schools taking part with some form of direct Bristol ChemLabS outreach. 2,039 teachers and teaching assistants in the 18 counties (plus Malta) visited and saw the assemblies and benefited from ‘CPD by diffusion’ during these events. This was the busiest year for primary outreach, so 2014/15 was not too far behind.

Wider Community Outreach

Wider Community is the catch-all phrase that describes events that are not solely for school students.

Such events include aspects of training for postgraduates, teachers, trainee teachers and general

lectures at science festivals to members of the public. Work with domestic and overseas

undergraduates is also included here. Teacher training can be done with links to other organisations

such as UWE and The Prince’s Teaching Trust (for whom several additional academics have given

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weekend lectures during the last year for the national project ‘Subject Day for Newly Qualified

teachers of Chemistry’).

During this last academic year, there were 37 outreach events spread over 47 days, involving an

estimated 4,789 people.

“The whole demonstration was stimulating from beginning to end the experiments were not only

exciting but also educational. Personally I enjoyed seeing the experiments first, and then having the

questions answered as to ‘why’. It definitely got me talking about science to my friends!’ ‘Inspirational’,

‘Science club on steroids!’ ‘It was great to see all the most dramatic practicals we could do altogether

in one place. It feels like it has saved hours of trawling and practising for the best ones. Really

interesting to see spectroscopy and that we can access it.’ ‘Infectious enthusiasm’, ‘Like watching a

magician, well-practised.”

Feedback from pre-PGCE students’ practical training session at UWE.

Examples of specific Outreach projects

(a) RSC Small Outreach Grants: ‘Bristol ChemLabS Science Assemblies for Primary

Schools in South West England’

The audiences were primary school pupils and their teachers during two days at several schools in

Devon and Cornwall. Tim Harrison and Alison Rivett were both involved in delivering the eight science

assemblies. The numbers of pupils per school differed but usually entire schools (or combination of

schools) were reached. The information in Table 1 gives a breakdown of pupil numbers by school, per

event:

Table 1: Pupil numbers by school, per event

In addition to the around 1,600 pupils, about 100 teachers and teaching assistants in the 15 schools

involved were engaged.

"It was such a unique opportunity I invited some local schools to share the experience. All

agreed that it was amazing and it was good to see the children being so inspired and wishing

to pursue a career in Science."

Headteacher, St Stephen's Community Academy, Launceston, Cornwall

(b) Schools Projects/UAS Scheme

School Year: Y1-6 Y5/6 Y5 Total

Numbers: 1,185 270 139 1,594

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Bristol ChemLabS Outreach worked with six final year BSc undergraduate students and put them in

five local schools and one Wiltshire school as ‘Schools projects students’. This two-term project is

assessed in the same way as laboratory-based projects in the SoC. As part of their project, the

undergraduates delivered science club and lesson activities including SIAS and cryo-materials

demonstrations.

(c) Spectroscopy in a Suitcase Scheme (SIAS)

For several years, Bristol ChemLabS Outreach has worked with the Royal Society of Chemistry in

delivering part of their ‘Spectroscopy in a Suitcase’ project. This year Bristol received its own kit rather

than having to share with the University of Bath. Bristol and Bath’s input into the SIAS project has

been so substantial that both now have their own kits to cover the south west of England. Liaison still

continues between both Chemistry departments on engagements.

The SIAS project is usually run using postgraduates (PGs) only. There is a substantial amount of PG

training involved in this project.

There were 14 SIAS engagements over the year, with several visits involving multiple sessions.

Note: the contract between the RSC and UoB took nearly nine months to be signed (after which costs

could be recovered)!

(d) British Council - Hong Kong

Through the Science Alive 2015 event at the Hong Kong Science Museum, Bristol ChemLabS Outreach broke a record by engaging with over 3500 school students and members of the public at a two-day outdoor event in Hong Kong. The event included hands-on workshops and more than 30 twenty-minute lecture demonstrations across the 14 hours. An additional workshop day was also delivered involving around 50 more students from six schools.

Working with the Widening Participation Office, University of Bristol

(a) Access into Bristol

Bristol ChemLabS delivered the SoC’s responsibility for WP by providing a series of afternoon events (including labs) for students applying to both the Faculties of Science and Medical Sciences, and also to a second group of 24 who will be applying to study Chemistry at Bristol.

(b) Insight into Bristol

Bristol ChemLabS delivered the SoC’s responsibility for WP by providing lab-based events (including labs) through a full weekend event in East London and three part-days at the School of Chemistry, for 18 Post 16 students, intending to apply to study Chemistry at Bristol but also to UoB Medical School/Medical Sciences.

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(c) Lecture demonstrations

Bristol ChemLabS provided several lecture demonstrations within the School of Chemistry for WP, for

their programme of schools visiting the university during the year.

Working with other UK universities in Outreach

Bristol ChemLabS, since its creation, has sought to assist other universities in aspects of outreach as well as other laboratory-based activities. Examples are given in Table 2 below.

Table 2. Working with other UK Universities

University What Notes

Bath SIAS/Lecture demonstration training

Birmingham Meetings on all aspects of Outreach

Zoe Schnep (lecturer) instigated meeting, including HoD

Durham College of STFs meeting

Has a School Teacher Fellow (STF).

Manchester Lecture demonstration training and other outreach liaison

Atmospheric Physics

Newcastle College of STFs meeting.

Has a STF.

STF will teach school students at Bristol in 2015/16

Northumbria College of STFs meeting

Has a STF.

Nottingham College of STF meeting

Has a Postdoc for Outreach

Plymouth

Reading College of STFs meeting

Has a STF.

Southampton College of STF meeting, has postgraduates researching STEM and Chemistry outreach

Has a STF.

Gloucestershire Outreach meetings and planning session

Professor Adam Hart, will again be working with ChemLabS on joint outreach events in Taunton and Guernsey

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Warwick College of STFs meeting

Has a post doc funded for 50% outreach. Lecture demonstration training

Has a STF.

STF has lectured at Bristol in reciprocal arrangement.

International Outreach: Home and away

Table 3. International Outreach Activities

Country Where Numbers involved

Activity Notes

Australia* Edith Cowan University, Perth

Teacher and Technician training

Lecture demonstrations to schools

Lectures on Outreach

Tim Harrison has Visiting Academic status

France, (University of Strasbourg)

Bristol ChemLabS

24 UGs and 2 academics

Residential Lab course/chemistry camp

Undergraduates. Second Visit TGH and NCN to visit Strasbourg (separately) in 2016

Malta (1) Bristol ChemLabS

45 Post 16 St Aloysius College

Residential Lab course/chemistry camp

Repeated booking. Expanding numbers each year. Top science school in Malta (Church School).

Malta (2) Malta 11 lecture demonstrations to 312 students in Forms 1 to 4.

Maltese Science Week Took PG Ash Griffin to train to deliver demo lectures. Visited by the Maltese Minister for Innovation

Malta (3) Bristol ChemLabS

7 students and 2 teachers

Fragrance Chemistry Workshop

National award-winning science students; second such annual visit

Spain University of Valencia

A Pollutant’s Tale TGH did this lecture during his holidays.

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Hong Kong National Science Museum

Several thousand members of the pubic

Cryo-materials demonstrations workshops

British Council (HK)

Guadeloupe, Caribbean

University of the Antillies

British Council (France)

Ireland Trinity College Dublin

~40 students Bristol TCD Summer school (residential)

10th Annual event

Japan Bristol ChemLabS

7 students Lab Day and also ChemLabS organised visit to other science departments

Inaugural visit Mukogawa Women's University Junior & Senior High School To become an annual event.

Jersey Bristol ChemLabS

23 Year 12 students from Jersey School for Girls

Residential 2 day chemistry camp

3rd year of an annual event (weather allowing)

Hong Kong Visit 2015

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Publications during the academic year 2014-15

Software

‘Web Materials for Material Science’, Tim Harrison, Suzanne Wilkins and Helen Browett. Primary

Science Teaching Trust, (2015). Temporary web address for this resource is

http://learningchemistry.co.uk/temp_upload/primary-qr/end-of-trail-quiz-2/

RSC’s Aspirin Synthesis Pre-lab Resource – Tim Harrison was the chemistry advisor to Learning

Science Ltd, the resource’s software builder. Launched September 2014.

RSC’s Titrations Pre-lab Resource – Tim Harrison was the chemistry advisor to Learning Science

Ltd, the resource’s software builder. Launched September 2015.

Papers and articles

On the Impact of School Teacher Fellows in Chemistry Departments within UK Higher Education

Institutes, from 2005-2013. Dudley E. Shallcross, Timothy G. Harrison, David Read & Nicholas

Barker, Higher Education Studies, Canadian Center of Science and Education, 4(4) 7-17; 2014. DOI:

10.5539/hes.v4n4p7.

Greening chemistry, Dudley Shallcross and Tim Harrison, Science in School, (Vol 31) February

2015.

Picture it….. Chemistry, Natalie Fey and Jenny Slaughter, Chemistry Review, April 24(4), 16-17.

(2015).

Investigating blood types, Tim Harrison and Magda Wajrak, Science in School, (Vol 32) July, 33-36,

(2015).

Can we grow gold on plants?, Natalie Fey, Chemistry Review, April 24(4), 32, (2015).

Press

Amino acids in chemistry, Tim Harrison, Chemistry Review, September 2015. 25(2) 14-15.

Extracting caffeine from tea leaves, Tim Harrison, Chemistry Review, September 2015. 25(2) 18-

22.

Lasers, sunscreens and free radicals, Mike Ashfold, Andrew Orr-Ewing, Tim Harrison, Daniel

Murdock and Gareth Roberts, Chemistry Review, September 2015. 25(2) 2-7.

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Reviews

The aspirin screen experiment, by the Royal Society of Chemistry, Science in School (Vol 31),

reviewed by Tim Harrison, February 2015.

An artistic introduction to anthocyanin inks, Science in School (Vol 31), by Gustavo Giraldi

Shimamoto, Adriana Vitorino Rossi, review by Tim Harrison, February 2015.

’Tim’s lecture was a brilliant example of the ‘awe & wonder of science’ and why demonstrations are

such an important part of maintaining children’s interest & curiosity in the subject. The audience

were not only captivated for an hour of flashes, smoke & bangs, but key misconceptions and literacy

were directly addressed in a powerful way! At the end, there was real buzz of excitement in the hall, I

overheard a group of year 7 pupils (boys & girls) saying, ‘I really want to be a chemist, that was so

cool!’ As the Adviser for Science in Devon, I look forward to seeing Tim in action in many more Devon

schools, both Primary and Secondary, in the near future! The benefits are obvious and I would like to

thank the University of Bristol Chemistry department and the RSC in providing such excellent

outreach to our Devon schools. Thank you!’

Paul Brown, Adviser for Science in Devon (12/02/15)

RSC Analytical Competition 2015 Runners-up, Exeter School

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Specific sources of funding

‘Pay to Play’

Schools continue to value the 0utreach activities by funding events ranging from lab visits,

spectroscopy tours, lecture demonstrations, primary workshops and other events. The schools include

both independent and state schools.

Research grants

Part of Tim Harrison’s salary is funded by several research grants of different durations, start dates

and percentages.

The research grants include a portfolio from the Atmospheric Chemistry Research Group (Professor

Dudley Shallcross), CDT in Catalysis (Professor Duncan Wass), Laser Chemistry (Professor Mike

Ashfold), Computational Chemistry (Professor Neil Allan), Biochemistry (Professor Matt Crump) and

Catalysis (Professor Robin Bedford).

Other grants

(a) Project Grants ChemLabS received three £2,000 RSC Outreach Small Grants during the year. Primary and

secondary students in the south of England benefited from three Royal Society of Chemistry

grants. These targeted monies supported Demonstration Chemistry Training for Postgraduate

Chemistry, some primary science assemblies for in South West England and several chemistry

demonstration lectures for geographically remote schools in Devon.

(b) Widening Participation Grants via the Faculty of Science, UoB For the last two years over £5000 has been made available for Outreach to run events with WP

schools. A separate report has been produced for WP on this work.

Training of postgraduates

Postgraduates involved in the Outreach programme continue to have STEM Ambassador training

along with a local STEM organisation (Graphic Science). Through this the PGs acquire DBS clearance

(Disclosure Barring Service) and are ‘police checked’. Additional training occurs in-house for those

wishing to take part in the primary events and the SIAS events. Some PGs have also been trained in

aspects of lecture demonstrations and to give 30 minute mini-lectures. Some have also worked with

Tim Harrison, writing articles for school student audiences.

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Other UoB projects supported by Bristol ChemLabS Outreach

School Protein Workshop Lead: Dr Chris Wood. The event is sponsored by Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research

Council (BBSRC) and South West Doctoral Training Partnership (SWDTP) grants worked several times

with Brislington Enterprise College (BEC), Bristol.

Discovery of Novel Antibiotics from Fungi Workshops Leads: Claudio Greco and Dr Kate de Mattos-Shipley. Ten Year 11 and Year 12 students and two

teachers from Downend School (six Y12s), St Mary Redcliffe Sixth Form (three Y12s) and Redland High

School (one Y11) took part in a series of three half-day workshops sponsored by BBSRC and Syngenta

grants.

Schools-University Partnership Initiative (SUPI) Tim Harrison ran a workshop, (with others) in September 2015 and had one-to-one sessions with several science PGs from outside Chemistry to train the students to give talks to schools and other groups. This is a central UoB initiative via the Schools Partnership Coordinator at the Centre for Public Engagement and a RCUK-funded project.

Miscellaneous outreach activities Harrison spent three days being filmed by the BBC doing practical science demonstrations for a new

BBC2 series ‘Weird World’, due for broadcast this autumn.

Harrison spent a day this summer working with Radium Sound, a sound recording and research

company who work in the film and media sector in Bristol. They wanted to record chemical reaction

and laboratory sounds to use in film.

Harrison continues to sit on the RSC Advisory Board for their major WP long-term outreach project.

Harrison is also the head of the College of School Teacher Fellows Group that meets annually.

Staff changes impacting on Outreach

The lengthy illness and eventual untimely death of Steve Croker, Teaching Laboratory Manager and

outreach stalwart, had an impact on the number of people using the laboratories. At the request of

the current Teaching Laboratory Manager, Dr Magda Markham, the numbers visiting the labs have

been reduced from ~80 per session to ~50 during undergraduate term time. Steve’s superb web

management of the Outreach web site has been passed on to Dr Beth Anderson while the old web

page system is in operation.

Outreach Administrator, Dr Marisol Ascencio, left Bristol, having completed her PhD, and now works

as an industrial chemist in Mexico City. We thank her for her work, not only as an Outreach

Administrator but also for three years of outreach engagement, particularly in delivering mini-lectures

on archaeological chemistry.

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Ms Hannah Ryan seamlessly took over the reins from Marisol. Hannah is the first non-PhD Chemistry

student to do this since Sue Williams, in the early days of ChemLabS. We thank Hannah for her input

into the smooth-running of this complex operation.

Challenges

The completion of Sarah Glover’s PhD will affect the number of events that can be held

simultaneously and at short notice.

Mrs Pat Cutts, who has been the Outreach technician for most of ChemLabS’ existence, shows

no signs of slowing up or reduction of commitment, and has already passed her 70th birthday.

The imminent change to a new web-hosting system; this will undoubtedly involve much time

and inconvenience. During the August/September period of 2015, Tim Harrison and Alison

Rivett are up-dating existing web pages so that movement challenges will be minimised. Our

thanks go to Dr Jon Charmant for looking at the structure/architecture of the new web page.

The proposed move of the Outreach Prep room to Level 1.

The bigger Outreach van will need replacing within the year, as it has more than 100,000 miles

on the clock and is starting to rust.

Future plans

In a nutshell, ‘more of the same’.

The lab space is well-booked for the next 12 months. The requests for demonstration lectures away

from the SoC is around the same level as last year (secondary). Some lecture demonstrations in

Guernsey, Jersey and Guadeloupe have been in planning for many months.

Primary schools are usually last-minute bookings, so I have no reason to think that Rivett’s work will

be in decline.

The PSTT have just requested a three-year contract to deliver activities for 40% of Harrison’s time from

Jan 2016. That may well involve several two-day sessions away from SoC per month (Mon/Tues or

Thur/Fri) and single away days.

Time necessary for specific activities for a number of existing (non-Atmospheric Chemistry) research

grants that are coming into maturity.

A project to produce a resource to aid students in Post 16 Chemistry, involving current research from

each area of the SoC, is currently being envisaged. This may have impacts on REF 2020.

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Montage of Red Maids Primary Visit for Gifted and Talented Day

3rd March 2015