The Salters’ Festival of Chemistry is a regional competition in which several schools in and around Nottingham are invited to participate in.  Each school enters a team of pupils from Years 7 and 8.  The event was hosted by the University of Nottingham Chemistry Department in May. 

 

This years’ competition consisted of two investigations to discover the culprit of a make believe crime, using flame tests (burning a substance and comparing the flame colour to a fixed chart to find out the identity of the chemical) and other methods to discover the name of the unknown element.

 

 

A lecture part way through the day (although you couldn’t really call it a lecture) was shown to everyone with a series of loud bangs and colourful explosions. Prior to the end, the smoke alarm rang because of all of the explosions and we all went outside for lunch.

 

 

At the end a fun task (making a boat) was organised, and we were given an assortment of items to construct it with. This was brilliant fun for all of the school groups, very few were successful but one school group beat the prototype made by the organisers! Everyone had a fantastic time and we learned a great deal.

 

The people competing for Nottingham High School were: Henry Stothard (8L), Michael Chaldecott (8L), Ashley Corke (8L) and Quintin Luong (7S).  Thanks to Mrs. Costante for her organisation and support on the day.

 

Written by Henry Stothard (8L) and Michael Chaldecott (8L).

 

The Nottingham High School team is selected from members of the Year 7 and Year 8 Chemistry Clubs.

 

 

If you would like more information about Salters' Festivals of Chemistry click here.