schools' analyst competition

Turton took a team out to compete in the North West Heat of the RSC Schools' Analyst Competition held at Manchester Metropolitan University today, where hard work and dedication was rewarded with a third place finish amongst some distinguished company.

The team of lower sixth students was made up from three outstanding candidates from the first year Chemistry course, Aimie Bowles, Christina Long and Tom Waite, who were ready to go head to head with 23 other schools and colleges from the Manchester area in a series of analytical practicals in the high spec. university labs.

An early registration at the University and a brief introductory talk from the organisers gave our intrepid trio a chance to weigh up the opposition, mainly consisting of local rivals and be-suited public schoolboys, after which they were whisked off to the labs to pit themselves against some of the greatest chemical minds in the North West. Mr Smith retired to the pub.

What followed was a whirlwind of analytical procedures, including titrations with multiple indicators, flame photometry, infra red spectroscopy and other qualitative testing for dissolved ions.  

Despite a late wobble with one of the simpler ion identifications, their analytical work had clearly caught the eye of the marking committee, with the University judges awarding them a score of 71 out of a possible 100, good enough for a clear 3rd place overall and a gift voucher which more than covered their lunchtime visit to Aimie's second home, Nandos. Rumours of a rival school being thrown out of the competition for fielding a candidate clearly on performance enhancing hormone replacement therapy were reported to be wide of the mark.

biomedicine afternoon at salford university

A number of Year 12 students had an afternoon out at Salford University today, where they discovered more about the type of research conducted at the University, in addition to getting involved in some practical sessions in the labs. Tom had been here before of course, squeezing crabs and such like, and was on first name terms with all the lecturers. He even knew where to find the bin.

The lab activities involved firstly preparing blood samples to spin in a centrifuge in order to separate out red and white blood cells, along with plasma, to assess blood parameters as an indicator of health. A second activity allowed students to gain an understanding of processing tissue samples for microscope analysis, involving dehydrating a biological sample with alcohol and impregnating it with wax. This was to aid the slicing of the sample into cross sections before staining. The poor little fly.

Students then got the opportunity to see some of the spectroscopy equipment in action, with infra-red and nmr machines being demonstrated, followed by a final talk from some past research students discussing available work placements and other opportunities.

Best of all though, there was chocolate. Lots of chocolate.

does it fizz or does it bang?

Last month, 6th form Chemists were treated to a trip to the Catalyst Discovery Centre in sunny Widnes to watch Professor John Kilcoyne in action with his 'Chemistry with a Bang' show.



Yet another in a long line of Chemists with very little hair, he obviously did himself no favours by showering under liquid nitrogen. That probably explains why he later put his hat on to keep warm. What was your excuse ladies?

bunhead

KS3 pupils from Turton visited the Catalyst Centre in Widnes today where they bore witness to Dr Bunhead's Exploding Energy Show. The show proved to be a big hit with the students and with Mr Smith, who came face to face with his doppleganger and personal hero. Mr Smith (above centre) and Dr Bunhead (above left) agreed that they were both quite good at blowing things up. Watch out with that potato bazooka.

For more Bunhead related antics check out Dr Bunhead's Website