Conference item : Presentation
Symmetry in chemistry: outreach workshops for KS3 students
- Abstract:
- Presentation given at Variety in Chemistry Education/Physics Higher Education Conference (ViCEPHEC) on 28th August 2025. ‘Building Bridges’ is an outreach project run by our department, supporting the transition between primary and secondary school, targeting areas with high free school meals rates. The programme runs throughout the year involving in-school enrichment activities and culminates in a university visit. Tasked with developing activities for groups of visiting KS3 students (ages 11–14) as part of this year’s theme, ‘Symmetry in our World’, we have designed and delivered a suite of short interactive workshops to be run in a standard undergraduate laboratory, using resources often encountered in university lab courses. Symmetry spirals through the school curriculum, with key skills such as identifying symmetry elements featuring in KS2 (ages 7-11). We wanted to build on and apply these skills to chemistry/materials science, whilst developing students’ understanding of what chemists do, as they begin studying chemistry as a separate subject. The workshops introduce X-ray diffraction, IR and NMR spectroscopy, and students learn how scientists study materials, and how understanding symmetry helps to elucidate structure. The hands-on sessions include building models, recording spectra, and experimentation with diffraction of lasers. We have also adapted these workshops for other age groups, and they can be modified to be taken out to schools.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Reviewed (other)
Actions
Authors
- Publisher:
- Variety in Chemistry Education/Physics Higher Education Conference
- Host title:
- Proceedings of the Variety in Chemistry Education/Physics Higher Education Conference (ViCEPHEC25)
- Publication date:
- 2025-08-28
- Acceptance date:
- 2025-06-13
- Event title:
- Variety in Chemistry Education/Physics Higher Education Conference (ViCEPHEC25)
- Event location:
- University of Liverpool, UK
- Event website:
- https://vicephec2025.weebly.com/
- Event start date:
- 2025-08-28
- Event end date:
- 2025-08-29
Terms of use
- Copyright date:
- 2025
- Notes:
- This paper was presented at the Variety in Chemistry Education/Physics Higher Education Conference (ViCEPHEC25), 28th-29th August 2025, University of Liverpool, UK. The author accepted manuscript (AAM) of this paper has been made available under the University of Oxford's Open Access Publications Policy, and a CC BY public copyright licence has been applied.
- Licence:
- CC Attribution (CC BY)
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