Four young 13 year old Year 8 boys from St Bonaventure’s are celebrating today after coming away with the top prize as they were named the winners out of thirteen Grammar, Independent and Comprehensive schools across London and beyond that took part in the Festival of Chemistry at UCL’s Department of Chemistry.
The competition took place on Friday, April 5 and the objective was to help promote the appreciation of chemistry and related sciences amongst the young.
Certainly, Hassan Ramzan, Awais Ramzan, Saad Rana and Tushar Patel had their appetites for the subject whetted as they came away with winning first place certificates and a Molymod and huge beaming smiles according to Science teacher, Ms Sandra Godwin-Martin who went with the students.
She went on to explain: “They had been preparing for the competition for weeks, coming to me in lunchtime sessions and gaining confidence and experience. They all worked incredibly hard and so when they had to complete their practical experiment to investigate the factors affecting the rates of reactions in only a minute, they were really confident and I was so proud. They obviously impressed the judges too and we were overjoyed when our name was called out as coming first.”
The students loved carrying out the investigations “like a real Chemist” and it encouraged them to work in teams and independently to solve problems as well as meeting and interacting with like minded Chemistry enthusiasts. Working with University students to gain an understanding of University life was intriguing and new for the students too.
Salters’ Festivals are a series of one-day fun events help at universities up and down the UK and Ireland. Started in 1991, it’ds thought that more than 50,000 students have experienced the fun of practical chemistry. The Royal Society of Chemistry have been in partnership with Salter’s Festivals of Chemistry since 2005.
Headteacher and former Science teacher, Mr Paul Halliwell, called the four into his office today to congratulate them adding: “As a Chemistry lover myself I was thrilled that St Bonaventure’s students came away with first prize. They should feel really proud of their achievement as am I.”
