Oct 2008 - Morrison's Academy

Science
Chemistry Department
Top of the Bench Quiz
This year the chemistry department
entered the UK-wide Top of the Bench
Quiz for the first time. The photo
shows the team of Alastair Hamilton
(S2), Emily Coffey (S3), Callum Strong
(S3) and Awena Sangster (S4). The
pupils all performed admirably
against their opponents from Harris
Academy, St. John’s High School and
The High School of Dundee.
For the first round, the team travelled
to Harris Academy where they
confidently answered a wide range
of questions to secure a place in the
next round. The Harris Academy
teacher commented on how strong
the team were and said that he
thought they could “go on and win” –
a great compliment and confidence
boost for the team right at the start of
the competition. The next round was
another “away game” at St John’s
High School in Dundee. With both
teams neck and neck in the first few
stages this made for a thrilling
competition. However, hesitation and
nerves on the part of St. John’s pupils
meant that several questions got
passed over to Morrison’s. Special
mention must go to Callum Strong’s
killer instinct, pouncing on the
opportunity to score bonus points
when such situations arose! A home
match against The High School of
Dundee proved, unfortunately, a
bridge too far for our budding
chemists. The High School has a
pedigree in this competition, reaching
the national finals in London last year.
Despite losing on home turf, our team
performed gallantly throughout this
round, especially as the questions
were more challenging compared to
the previous two matches. Overall,
this competition proved to be an
exciting new venture involving
chemistry within the school. Our team,
buoyed with success in the first two
matches, regularly discussed how
they would travel down to London for
the finals. Needless to say, they were
gutted when knocked out of the
competition. Perhaps next year, the
finals in London will become a reality
for them…
Chemistry at Work
While science teachers constantly
strive to link course content to the
“outside world”, it is sometimes difficult
for pupils to visualise the type of work
they might be doing if they pursued a
science-related career.
Chemistry@Work days which are run
by the Royal Society of Chemistry are
designed to introduce pupils to
possible chemistry-related careers. S4
pupils attended one of these days at
St Andrew’s University and heard from
scientists working in several fields
including forensics, the
pharmaceutical industry, paint
manufacture, agriculture and fizzy
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drinks manufacture. On returning to
school, pupils said that they had
learned about several chemistryrelated
jobs that they were not aware
of previously. The forensic science
display in particular sparked an
interest in several pupils who left the
event keen to work on the set of CSI!!
Scottish Crop Research Institute
(SCRI)
The Advanced Higher chemists spent
a day at the SCRI near Dundee to get
an insight into the important work
done there at the biology-chemistry
interface. Topics covered included
the chemistry behind the “hotness” of
chilli peppers and the chemical basis
of the effects of cocaine use. Pupils
were also introduced to analytical
techniques such as mass
spectrometry. While much of the
science involved in these processes is
well beyond the level encountered at
school, the event was successful in
highlighting how much the different
sciences overlap in the world of
research.