Oct 2008 - Morrison's Academy

Page 54 The Morrisonian | 07/08 Secondary
Science
Dr Bunhead’s Exploding Santa
Show
Higher Chemistry pupils travelled to St
Andrews to the Royal Society of
Chemistry Christmas Lecture. Dr
Bunhead, straight from Sky One’s
Braniac, performed many fun and
interesting chemistry experiments,
most of which were accompanied by
very loud bangs and flashes.
Thankfully the organisers had
disabled the smoke detector before
the lecture! The trip was a great hit
with the pupils. As after the 2007
lecture, many requests have been
made to recreate the experiments in
school. The photo shows pupils in one
of the school chemistry labs
preparing “elephant toothpaste” and
trying to make a Jelly Baby howl as
featured in the lecture. The
demonstrations involving potatoes
being launched through the air and
much larger flames will have to be
left to Dr Bunhead!!
Chemistry Practical Workshop –
Dundee University
Pupils doing Advanced Higher
Chemistry learn a wide variety of new
and challenging practical laboratory
techniques by completing a series of
Prescribed Practical Activities as well
as completing a research project.
While this is an enjoyable and
important component of the course, it
is always a challenge to fit so much
practical work into the school day
and indeed into the school
laboratories. We were therefore
delighted to be invited to take the
pupils to Dundee University chemistry
department to carry out some of this
work. The pupils attended two
separate sessions at Dundee
University in December to complete
their prescribed practical activities.
Pupils had access to excellent
resources both in terms of the
laboratory facilities and the technical
expertise. This, combined with ability
to spend a whole day doing
uninterrupted practical work, meant
that the pupils were to complete tasks
much faster than they can at school.
However, even using the state of the
art equipment, the pupils were
constantly under pressure to” beat the
clock” as some of the experiments
took several hours to complete,
especially for their second visit, which
involved organic chemistry practical
work. Our pupils seemed impressed
with the facilities on offer at the
university and also liked the fact that
they could wander into different labs
to check up on their friends doing
different experiments at the same
time.
Although a far more informal
atmosphere was evident, our S6
students displayed the self-discipline
that was required in order to
complete the activities before they
once more had to board the school
mini-bus for the return journey back to
school. Staff at Dundee gave the
Advanced Higher pupils further
support with some of their project
work. Jamie Fairclough returned to
Dundee to use some of their
analytical tools as part of his
investigation to uncover the chemical
identity of an unknown compound.
Nuffield Science Bursary
Advanced Higher Chemistry Student,
Stephen Hamilton, was granted a
Nuffield Bursary this year which
enabled him to secure a work
placement in a science laboratory at
Organon Laboratories in Newhouse.
During this time he completed a
project in the field of pharmaceutical
research.
At the end of his placement, he was
awarded a certificate of completion
by Francis Chapman, the Scottish coordinator
of Nuffield Science
Bursaries.
M McKeever
M Kihlken