St Mary's Calne
On Tuesday 8th November, an action-packed Fires, Burning and Oxygen Chemistry Workshop took place with Year 6 pupils from four of our local primary schools (Fynamore, Heddington, Holy Trinity and Marden Vale). The pupils were split into two groups, led by Mrs Wilson, Miss Skelhorn and Dr Fowler, and had the opportunity to be fully immersed in a wide range of activities.
The first activity consisted of identifying hazard symbols and matching them with their meaning and description, this was important for the pupils to learn before moving onto the practical activities.
The pupils were then shown how to light a Bunsen burner safely and asked if they could identify its main components, which was swiftly followed by task two where they were asked to light their own Bunsen burners in pairs. They were delighted to gain their Bunsen burner licences!
Once all the pairs had successfully lit their Bunsen burners, it was onto activity three… the Flame Test! All pairs were given splints that had been soaked in metal compounds which, when placed into a Bunsen flame, will create different coloured flames. Using the flame colour chart provided, the students were able to identify which metals were in which compounds and were asked to record their findings. They all had a great time waiting to see what colour the flame would be and then identifying the different compounds.
Moving onto activity four, and after a safety talk and demonstration, we had some very brave volunteers to take part in ‘Fire Hands’! This consisted of a mix of liquid soap and water which has a flammable gas passed through it creating lots of bubbles. The pupils gathered these bubbles in their hands which was then ignited. The atmosphere was full of excitement (and a few nerves!) but once they had their turn they thought this was absolutely fantastic and had second and third turns; they even managed to convince their teachers to participate!
In the final task of the day, the two groups came together to observe the ‘Screaming Jelly Baby’. During this experiment, Dr Fowler heated potassium chlorate with a Bunsen burner to the point of melting, at this point a jelly baby was dropped into the test tube causing it to burst into flames and produce a screaming sound and an aroma of candyfloss.
All students were presented with a certificate to show they can safely use a Bunsen burner and a postcard featuring our Calne teddy bear, Mary-Margaret, who was sent into space (and was safely bought back home!) so they could write to their family and friends about all the exciting experiments they had undertaken.