Want a career in Chemistry? Let’s hope these students do!
Nine year 9 students from Garstang Community Academy were selected to take part in a ‘Chemistry at Work’ event at Preston’s College on Monday 7th December alongside 10 other local schools. The event allowed the students to participate in several hands-on workshops based around Chemistry. These were delivered by Cogent (The skills body for the Science Industries), from Preston’s College and by several STEM Ambassador employers.
The students participated in four workshops, first of which was an ’employability workshop’ looking into the various skills employers are looking for and how to hone them. Secondly the students were challenged with providing a detailed scientific method for the simple task of making a cup of tea and then had to follow the instructions written by another group – although this sounds very simple the students method had to be as accurate as possible as exact measurements for each of the ingredients were required (it’s safe to say some of the tea looked a little like baby milk afterwards!)
After lunch the students managed to really get stuck into some Chemistry related tasks. They were allocated a country to represent and then challenged with making a water filter with a set ‘budget’, each material costing them valuable tokens from their kitty! Overall their Scientific skills paid off as they managed to make a very successful filter! The last event of the day included a titration where the students were asked to determine the vitamin C content of various food items, quite a challenging task!
During the day the students encountered many Chemistry related professionals and got to try different techniques and experiments. This enabled them to find out more about Chemistry related careers and opportunities – definitely worth it for those considering a career in Chemistry. Faye Mower also managed to win a prize for her enthusiasm and enquiry throughout the day, well done Faye!
Thank you to all the year 9 pupils who represented Garstang at this event.