This year’s Young Chemistry Communicators initiative, where WGS Year 12 students work to inspire an interest in science among local primary school children through exciting practical demonstrations, began on Teams on 9th January with an online workshop. Members of the Education Team from Xplore Science, a science discovery centre in Wrexham, taught the girls how to create ‘flash bang’ chemistry shows that can be presented live online, or be filmed to watch at any time.

The students were, as usual, brilliant, engaging with the presenters and learning many valuable skills associated with communicating Chemistry to different audiences. Then on 26th March, it was showtime! Twenty students were involved, who, this year, had the added challenge of significantly modifying their performance format due to the pandemic. During lockdown, the girls planned three superb kitchen Chemistry shows that could be performed and filmed at home. The featured experiments were all kitchen based, involving reagents that could be safely handled by younger children, either at home or in the school setting.

Two of the shows were delivered virtually to pupils of Years 5 and 6 from St Teresa’s Primary School, and the third show was delivered to our very own Year 8s. At the point of presentation, all shows included a mix of live and recorded deliveries, adapted to suit the respective audiences. In addition, the St Teresa’s shows included practical opportunities for the children to make their very own lava lamps and slime. To support the activities at St Teresa’s the teams prepared a set of reagents and supporting documents, including a booklet of instructions for the children and their teachers, a certificate of achievement and questionnaires to assess their learning and, of course, their enjoyment of the shows. Each show had a slightly different twist and a different range of live and recorded activities.

Dr Smiles introduces the St Teresa’s children to the WGS presentation team

Head of Chemistry, Dr Vilela said: “The Young Chemistry Communicators have been a fantastic group to work with and the Chemistry Department would like to congratulate them on their efforts and incredible achievements.”