6 minute read
Chemistry
Year 7 Trip to the Natural History Museum
On Wednesday 7th March, Year 7 went to the Natural History Museum. We started in the Blue Zone, discovering how to make whale noises (pinch your nose shut and try to hum). Then we headed to the Dinosaur Section and examined a moving model of a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Next we went to the Green Zone, inspecting dinosaur fossils and answering questions on our quiz sheet, before moving on to Creepy Crawlies. Unfortunately, I am terrified of all insects so I felt a bit uncomfortable going in!
When visiitng Termite Tower, we entered No.1 Crawlie House and investigated all the insects inside our own home. The best part of our trip was going to the photo exhibition. We weren’t allowed to take any pictures, but the photos themselves were beautiful. One was of a forest completely covered in butterflies, and others were of animals interacting with each other. Some were in black and white, others shone with colour, but they were all incredible. The final area we explored was the Red Zone. There, we found an earthquake emergency kit, discovered how volcanoes were created, and experienced a mild version of what it would be like to be in an earthquake. I can’t wait to go to the Natural History Museum again!
Iva Ristic, Year 7
Exploring Science Club
Iva Grujic (Year 12), quite literally, playing with fire during Exploring Science club. We experimented with flame tests to discover what colour flame each ion produces.
Year 7s getting creative while making tie dye patterns using ethanol and permanent markers.
Chemistry Competitions
C3L6 is a prestigious Olympiad type competition for Year 12 Chemists:
Copper Awards:
Shalini Chohan, Hannah Coxhead, Rebecca Everett, Iva Grujic, Sharuka Ravichandran, Anna Tomlinson and Elena Tybulewicz
Silver Awards:
Rinda Naresh and Karen Ramzy Yacoub.
In the Chemistry Olympiad, the following students achieved Bronze Awards:
Year 13: Bismah Kazi, Janvi Patel, Deepa Kumaran, Vedika Dass and Grace Hoffman
Year 12: Karen Ramzy Yakoub, Rinda Naresh, Iva Grujic and Sharuka Ravichandran
Dr Emma King Talk from the Royal Institution
A highlight of Science Week for Year 7 was the visit by Dr Emma King from the Royal Institution, who delivered a performance that (literally) moved the whole school. We watched in amazement as Dr King demonstrated just how much energy is contained in a gummy bear. During the Screaming Gummy Bear demonstration, the fire alarms went off and the entire school had to be evacuated! Next, Dr King discussed the real reasons why people don’t like brussels sprouts. This was followed by a fascinating but rather disgusting demonstration to model exactly what happens inside the human
digestive system. We thoroughly enjoyed the show, which also left us knowing all about the history of the Royal Institution and the many amazing discoveries that have been made there.
Esme Sugden, Year 7
On Monday lunchtime of Science Week, we got the chance to express our artistic capabilities by creating cyanotypes. Cyanotype is a photographic printing process that produces a deep blue (cyan) print using two iron-containing chemicals.
Engineers used the process to produce simple and low cost copies of drawings; the origin of the word “blueprint”. We placed objects on top of paper which we had painted with the cyanotype solution, keeping in mind the handy phrase “If it lets light through, it will turn blue. If it blocks out light, it will stay white”. This meant that any places that were uncovered by the objects were exposed to UV light and so turned blue. We left our cyanotypes overnight by a windowsill (hoping that the weather would allow at least a trace of sunshine) and came back the next day to discover our amazing creations.
Alisha Godhania, Year 12
Chemistry Jokes
Here are some chemistry jokes to cheer you up on those days when your equations just don’t seem to balance:
KS2 Science Visit
During Science Week, the Year 5s from the Junior School joined us in the science department for a morning of exciting experiments. Each science (Chemistry, Biology, Physics and Psychology) carried out a short activity with a small group of girls, which was rotated every five minutes so that they all had the opportunity to get a flavour of each science. The activities included creating “glove monsters” using bicarbonate of soda and vinegar, using microscopes, learning about the Van der Graaf generator and testing themselves with psychological activities. These were all experiments that the Year 5s had never come across before and so it was amazing to see their astonishment and wonder towards the discoveries they were making. We all felt that they went back to their lessons having learnt something new and looking forward studying science in the Senior School.
Alisha Godhania, Year 12
Helium walks into a bar.
The bar tender says “We don’t serve noble gasses in here.” Helium doesn’t react.
Have you heard the one about a chemist who was reading a book about helium?
He just couldn’t put it down.
I heard Oxygen and Magnesium were going out
And I was like OMG
Two chemists go into a restaurant.
The first one says “I think I’ll have an H2O.” The second one says “I think I’ll have an H2O too” -- and he died. Friday 20th April was the delightful day when we went to the Salters’ Festivals of Chemistry Competition at Imperial College London. I was thrilled to be chosen along with three other Year 8 girls. Led by Ms Johnson, we took part in two challenges. The first one included: chromatography, unknown solutions and reactions with white powder. The second challenge was much harder. We were given two polystyrene cups, citric acid, water, sodium hydrocarbonate and some measuring equipment and we were supposed to create a reaction between these substances (which were limited) only in the time of a minute. The reaction needed to cool at or less than 10.5 Celsius (endothermic reaction). We used our knowledge from our Chemistry lessons that stirring helps a chemical to react faster. After a lot of trial and error, we decided that we would use 10 ml of water, 20 spatulas of citric acid and 10 spatulas of sodium hydrocarbonate and stir them together vigorously. Guess what - we went below the temperature we had to beat! After that challenge, we were reunited with Ms Johnson and we sat and watched a fun chemistry workshop until it was time for announcing the winners. We were waiting impatiently for the results and couldn’t believe that it was us! We got a personal handshake from all the judges along with our prizes and certificates. It was a wonderful experience!
Rhea Johri, Year 8
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