This hands-on laboratory-based workshop will allow participants to try a number of classic secondary/high school experiments (at least they are in the UK!) done either in reduced scale or in microscale apparatus. These techniques have many advantages for high school or even early years undergraduate laboratories, including safety (much smaller quantities of chemicals used and in many cases less severe heating than a Bunsen!); speed (reactions are much faster in smaller scale), greener (far less waste to dispose of and reuseable catalysts) and pedagogically (microscale apparatus is often simpler so the students can concentrate on the chemistry and not how to operate the equipment!).
Indeed, many microscale experiments can be carried out in non-laboratory settings and even standard classrooms without sinks!
The experiments may include the preparation of copper(II) sulphate crystals, determining the formula of magnesium oxide and/or hydrated copper(II) sulphate, electrolysis of aqueous copper chloride, preparation of esters and puddle chemistry (diffusion & precipitation). Full instructions will be provided for both the experiments and how to construct the apparatus, which the delegates can keep after the workshop, and in some cases, they will be able to take away the apparatus too!
The workshop will be facilitated by a very experienced forner secondary (high school) chemistry teacher from the UK (20 years in the classroom), who is now an experienced STEM Outreach Officer at a UK Russell Group University (12 years) and who has previously presented at both the 24th and 25th BCCEs. He is also an experienced CPD facilitator in the UK for a range of professional bodies, including the RSC, Exam Boards & CLEAPSS. This workshop is both inspired by and supported by Bob Worley from CLEAPSS, one of the leading exponents and innovators of microscale chemistry worldwide.