Salters’ Chemistry Camp – University of Nottingham
At midday, on Monday 2nd July, Vivek Chidambaram and I arrived at the Hugh Stewart Hall of Residence on the Nottingham University campus. There we met 50 other 15 year olds from a variety of schools and backgrounds up-and-down the country in what we hoped would be three days of fun.
Soon after the meeting we had lunch then went down to the School of Chemistry where we could carry out our first practical. As the course was based on Pharmaceutical Chemistry and sponsored by GlaxoSmithKline, our first experiment involved the production of paracetamol from raw ingredients of 4-amino-phenol and ethanoic anhydride. A huge benefit of this course was not just seeing what pharmaceutical chemistry was about, but also using the well resourced university laboratories and a wide range of complex and expensive equipment.
In the evening we had a lecture on ‘Thunder and Lightening’, but it was just a series of massive sensory reactions – i.e. explosions. My ears we deafened by the end of it!
On Tuesday after a ‘Banquet Breakfast’ we had our morning activity of Blue Printing. This practical involved producing the chemicals needed to carry out the process of producing a print with film negatives – like that seen in films with dark, red lit rooms where photographs are dipped in chemical solutions in order to produce a print.
In the afternoon practical we made Stingcurb: a product used to ease the pain of insect bites. It contained two active ingredients: benzocaine which acts as a local anaesthetic (also a derivative for cocaine) and the pain killer, paracetamol.
On Tuesday evening, I and the fellow socialites ‘raved’ at Megabowl which involved a laser and smoke disco. One may think that the ‘Chemistry Camp’ would be a bit geeky, but in fact it was the complete opposite. When we arrived on our first day we were all apprehensive that the Camp would be full of ‘Nerds’, but this was simply not the case!
On the final morning we carried out a ‘Bubbles’ practical which involved a lot of people getting covered in soap water- for obvious reasons as it was the final few hours of the course. We had various experiments to perform such as making various types and shapes of bubbles from a soap solution using different objects such as rope and copper wire. I and a few others managed to make a massive soap bubble (3m x 6m).
I would definitely love to go again, and would recommend to anybody who is given the opportunity not be put off by the name ‘Chemistry Camp’, but see it as three fun packed days away from school in which you do ‘real’ chemistry and meet loads of cool boys and girls from all over the UK!
Thanks to Mr Heath and Mrs Costante for making it possible for Vivek and myself to take this opportunity.
Tom Burnham 11W
If you want to find out more about Salters' Chemistry Camps for Year 10 students click
here.
