The Salters are one of the livery companies from the City of London. They were formed in the 14th century to regulate the trade in salt through London. Today the Salters provide charitable funding for chemistry education, amongst other things, and run festivals and camps for schools throughout the United Kingdom.
Barrhead High has been attending the festivals for some time now with varying degrees of success. They are open to pupils in P7 and S1 only. The day is split into three sessions.
Session 1 – The Salters’ Challenge
This requires the teams to follow precise instructions in the analysis of various known and unknown substances. It is presented in the form of a forensic investigation and the teams have to identify the criminal from the evidence they have analysed. Marks are deducted for poor safety protocols, not following instructions and for too much teacher input!
Session 2 – The University Challenge
This is set by the host university and is also a forensic investigation but this time has a selection of mini-tasks which involve many scientific techniques. Teachers are excluded from this event.
Session 3 – The Show
Each year the host university provides a series of chemical demonstrations designed to whet the appetite of the young learners. The demonstrations are usually loud – but not always!
Barrhead High attends the festivals hosted by Glasgow University which are run by Professor Bob Hill and an army of technicians and demonstrators. The pupils are under constant scrutiny throughout the day to see how well they cope with the challenges and the regime of being in a laboratory. This session we were represented by:
Lisa Drain, Jack McFarlane, Andrew Chapman and Robyn Johnston, all from S1
Our team presented themselves very well and they all said how much they enjoyed the day even if they did not win any of the challenges.
The next festival will be announced in November 2015 and will probably be held in May of 2016.
Mr C Murray
BHS Science Faculty, Chemistry Department
