CONTENTS OF THIS PAGE

    *        SALTERS 08 Results and Photos 

   

         

    *Promotions committee   Each year  The staff of the Chemistry Department are involved in staging a series of events which promotes Chemistry at Second Level schools; for Chemistry Teachers as in house training and Second Level students who are thinking about taking Chemistry as a subject when they come to University. A special committee, Promotion of Chemistry  formed from the Academic  Technical and Postgraduate Staff of the Department organise a comprehensive programme in association with various other Educational bodies . Chair is JJKeating and members ,   Barry O'Mahony, Pat O'Connell, . Donnach O'Connell  Rosario Causer , Declan Kennedy

         7th MAY    SALTERS' Festivals of Chemistry

The main highlight of the Promotion of Chemistry at U.C.C.  took place on Wednesday 7th May 2008 when the Chemistry Department hosted the SALTERS FESTIVAL of CHEMISTRY . 21 schools  from throughout the County as well as one school from Waterford , Limerick and Tipperary were represented with each  of the schools sending 4 pupils and their Chemistry teacher to this one day Festival. All the schools are members of the Salters ‘ Chemistry Club which is the flagship charity of the Salters Company. The Club was founded to re-establish the company’s former connection with the Chemical industry.  Its objectives is to support Chemistry Teaching , encourage scientific literacy amongst  young people and help maintain the supply of high quality graduates in Chemistry and Chemical engineering  as industrialists  and teachers , both to create wealth in Industry and to teach the next generation.  The Salters’ Festival at the Chemistry Dept of U.C.C. is one of forty five such festivals which will take place in the UK and Ireland  between March and June this Summer.

WHO PINCHED THE SALT

This activity is all about forensic science. Forensic scientists/ chemists gather information from the scene of a crime in order to solve what happened and how it happened. The teams took the part of forensic chemists to use the clues provided in the Garda report and the information about suspects to solve the mystery of the theft at Salters hall

The first part of the activity involves testing salts. The salt that most people know is Sodium Chloride , which is used to flavour Food. However Sodium Chloride is only one example of a salt and in the course of the Morning experiment the students would meet several other salts in this activity. The first part of the investigation is to identify  the metal  part of the salt, the second part to identify the non metals in the salty. To make it more interesting, Salty introduced a mixture of two salts for the students to analyse.

The Salty Challenge  results 

1.  Meanscoil San Nicolas

2. Scoil Mhuire

3. Clonakilty Community College

technician trouble in University Challenge

Our absent minded Technician, Donnacha has a problem. He has made up the solutions for Dr David Otway's practical but has forgotten to label the Test Tubes. He needed the students help.

University Challenge Results –  

1. Salesian Secondary School

2. Mount Mercy

3. St AilbesVocational School

Declan Kennedy of the Education Department staged a Magic show to conclude the day of Chemistry which was breathtaking and had the students glued to their chairs     The Presentation of prizes for the Salters Challenge and the University  Challenge was made. At the presentations were  Prof Jeremy Glennon, Head of Department, Michelle Milne of Salters Festival , Ann Cronin, Science Promotions Officer and organisers J.J Keating  Tom O’Mahony and the competition took place in the 5 First Year Laboratories  of the Chemistry Dept. in the Kane Building.  

In complementing the students and their school teacher for their great understanding of the concepts involved Dr Keating encouraged them to continue with their interest in Chemistry.   Finally all  staff of the Department  involved in the organisation of the event  were thanked for their input.