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University provides good clean fun at summer camp

Posted on 20 August 2002

Square bubbles, bubbles inside bubbles, bubbles as large as a hula-hoop and even dry-ice carbon-dioxide bubbles are making chemistry fun for schoolchildren from across the country in a summer chemistry camp at the University of York this week. (19-23 August).

Fifty 15-year-olds will be learning how surfactants - ‘surface active agents' - work as they practise their bubble-blowing skills with organiser Dr Annie Hodgson and colleagues in the University's Department of Chemistry.

Dr Hodgson said: "Chemistry ought to be exciting and fun to learn about and that's what we're doing with the summer school. At the same time we have a serious message - chemistry is important and relevant in our everyday lives and in industry. It's vital that the fun provides a means of learning and understanding. "

Participants will also use forensic techniques to solve the ‘murder' of Professor ‘Ivor Nidea', learn about natural dyes as they make dies for tie-dying, and meet working chemists at the Croda International plant near Goole which makes materials used in the cosmetics industry.

The chemistry camp has been sponsored by the Salters' Institute (the livery company for the salt industry), the Royal Society of Chemistry, and Croda International.

Contact details

David Garner
Senior Press Officer

Tel: +44 (0)1904 322153