Chemistry at Blundell's
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We see the department as a place where practical work should be an integral part of the courses. We have good laboratory facilities that are available for all lessons and have a lecture theatre containing a digital projector. The department has a set of laptops for class-based data-logging activities.
2010 U6 leavers
The use of videos, DVDs and CD-ROMs is written into our work schemes at all levels and is an integral part of our courses.
Our courses are popular within the school and we are proud of a fine record in examinations.
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Chemistry News
“Top of the Bench” Practical Chemistry Competition 2011
Emily Nash, Gus De Falbe, James Perring and Ben Charles represented the school in a practical chemistry competition held at Bristol University. Top of the Bench is a national competition run by the Royal Society of Chemistry for 14-16 year old students. The students competed in a selection of chemical investigations particularly aimed for Gifted and Talented pupils. It was a fantastic opportunity for the pupils to visit a top university and practice chemistry in some of the best laboratories in the world. Although they did not win the pupils thoroughly enjoyed the day and talked about their experiences the whole way home.
Emily Nash summarised the day in her own words. “On the 13th January Mr Mead took four willing students up to Bristol University to take part in a Chemistry competition in which about fifteen schools competed. In the first task the team had an hour to complete two experiments; one to identify certain metals and another to work out the amount of a substance so a reaction took place in exactly 60 seconds. After a break we faced the next task of identifying water, an indicator, a weak alkali, a strong alkali and a strong acid using only those solutions. Whilst the scores of each team were being added, everyone had the chance to watch an entertaining presentation of experiments - not unlike some of Mr Guy's more infamous! Sadly we didn't manage to win and move on to the next round but had a fun time participating.”
RSC Schools Analytical Chemistry Competition 2011
A selection of very able lower sixth students represented Blundell’s at the Royal Society of Chemistry Schools Analytical Chemistry Competition. Simon Tang, Terence Li and Tess Ryder handpicked to compete against other gifted and talented pupils from the regions schools. The three worked fantastically on some very challenging chemical investigative practicals and just missed out victory. Although to win would have been lovely, the experience of the university labs and the surroundings were invaluable for these lower 6th students who will be applying for university in November.
Tess Ryder described her experience of the day. “On Wednesday 30th March, Blundell’s took a team of three AS level Chemistry students to compete in Bristol University’s Chemistry Analysis competition. This involved four tasks to be completed over the course of the day on all aspects of the Chemistry syllabus, including concentration tests on bleach and even attempting to time the colour change of a solution to create a sequence. The Bristol Chemistry Labs were highly equipped and throughout the day postgraduates were on hand to assist and teach the students in any way possible to improve chemical techniques. The day was finished off with a lecture from Tim Harrison on perfume chemistry which was highly entertaining followed by the announcement of the results; we did our best and the day was enjoyed thoroughly by all.
“Salters” Festival of Chemistry Competition 2011
Christopher Hamilton, Matthew Baughan, Emily Combe and Natalie Cotton were handpicked to represent Blundell’s in the Salters Festival of Chemistry. Held at the prestigious Bristol University Chemistry Department, the pupils competed with 19 other schools from the south west in a practical chemistry competition. The pupils seemed to have a tremendous time throughout the day and performed fantastically well t win the Bristol University Chemistry Challenge. The day is summarised beautifully by Christopher Hamilton.
On Monday 16th May, we arrived at school at 7:30am and drove up to Bristol University with Mr Mead to take part in the Salter’s Festival of Chemistry. It took us over an hour to get there, but there were schools from all over the West Country participating. When we arrived there were only a few other schools, but after a while they all arrived. We were then introduced by one of the technicians who talked us through what we would be doing. He told us that there were two competitions. One was the Salter’s Competition, and the other was set by the university. After the introduction we were lead up to the labs on the sixth floor. They were incredible. All the equipment looked brand new and there was loads of space. We were shown to our work-benches and we started the Salter’s Competition. We had to work out who had murdered a woman called Flossy Chops with the aid of Chromatography and Salts testing. It proved quite challenging. After that, we had lunch, and after lunch, we started the University challenge. For this, we had to build an Iodine clock that changed colour at set times. This was surprisingly difficult, but we ended up getting our times almost dead on. We then had to work out the concentration of Copper in a solution. This was much easier than the iodine clock, but it was still challenging. When we had finished the challenges, we had a lecture (a fun lecture) by the Technician, and he showed us lots of cool reactions and experiments. He then announced the winners, and we won the University Challenge! We were all tired by that time and set off back home with our prizes.”
The Great Egg Race at the University of Plymouth 2011
We arrived at Plymouth College, eager to start “The Great Egg Race”. Our challenge was to find a way to move a Kinder Egg from the floor to the top of a table (3/4m high). Whilst this sounded fairly straight forward we weren’t allowed to have any physical contact with the egg or use a manual cog to raise the egg from the floor, we were only given the basics of a small motor and two batteries to help us create a suitable mechanism which also could be no greater than 30 x 25 x 15cm on completion and we could only attach the egg with a bit of tape and a hook.
In addition to the motor we were allowed access to various materials, but what use was a pile of leftover materials that people had thrown out, going to be, and included rubbish such as paperclips, scrap pieces of metal and broken batteries.
However, left alone in a small group, with ideas bouncing around it’s amazing what can be achieved and after 3 hours of intense designing and building we had a contraption, which needless to say lifted the egg from the floor using a hook and a motor. The hook was connected to the motor via a piece of string and that was stuck on to a wheel which turned by the battery powered motor.
When time was called and our invention was put to the ultimate test it was able to lift the egg, in one piece, in 10 seconds. Now whilst this was a good time it wasn’t good enough to be placed in the top 3, the quickest time being under one second.
However, whilst not a winner, we were proud of our achievements as we completed the task within the size restrictions, a challenge which only a few of the many schools to compete actually achieved.
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