A Family Evening of Chemistry

Families enjoyed an evening of chemistry discovering who had ‘contaminated’ a sample of water as part of British Science Week at Bishop’s

On Friday 8th March, families enjoyed an evening performing various chemical activities for the start of British Science Week at Bishop’s. Families had to set up a mini filtration system to purify the ‘contaminated’ water and then used various techniques to identify what metal ion was ‘contaminating’ the water. Flame tests were used as well as precipitation reactions to see the colour changes and match the known colours to their water sample. The final check used electrolysis in tic-tac boxes, a great sustainable piece of apparatus, to see copper being deposited on the electrode. All the possible metal ions were linked to one of the science staff and everyone worked out that Ms Adams was the ‘culprit’! After all the chemical activities were completed, parents listened to me and 3 of her fellow Year 13 chemistry students, discussing famous environmental disasters like Chernobyl and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. It was a great opportunity for us Sixth Formers to develop our confidence in presenting scientific scenarios and for local families to gain an insight into Chemistry while enjoying working with their children in a chemistry lab.

Mahi J