The activities we offer are a great way to put the science you teach into context. Our workshops cover subjects relevant to the science curriculum.
Your students will enjoy hands-on exercises in groups using our laboratories and equipment.
Spectroscopy workshops
Our spectroscopy workshops are offered free of charge and are suitable for students in years 12 and 13. We can accommodate up to 30 students in one session.
Students are split into small groups and taken on a tour of the three areas of spectroscopy relevant to the post-16 curriculum. They visit the instruments and are given 20-minute talks by experienced staff in the fields of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), mass spectrometry and infrared (IR) spectrometry.
Groups have the opportunity to run their own samples of compounds they have prepared in school. The principles of spectroscopy are reinforced by a 30-minute problem-solving workshop following the tours where students deduce the structure of some unknown compounds using spectroscopic data.
Workshops tend to start between 1.00pm and 1.30pm, and usually last about 2 hours.
There are currently no more dates available to book for the academic year 2023/24. We will publish available dates for the 2024/2025 academic year after Easter 2024, please check back then to find a date suitable for you.
Synthesis/Separation with spectroscopy
Our Synthesis/Separation with spectroscopy workshops are suitable for years 12 and 13. We can accommodate up to 30 students in one session.
Students complete a practical synthesis or separation using the university laboratories and equipment. Students then analyse their separated/synthesised compounds using thin layer chromatography (TLC) and infrared (IR) spectroscopy to deduce what they have made and check purity.
This gives them the opportunity to experience new techniques which will not be available to them at school and allows them to perceive subjects from the post-16 syllabus in context.
There are currently no more dates available to book for the academic year 2023/24. We will publish available dates for the 2024/2025 academic year after Easter 2024, please check back then to find a date suitable for you.
KS4 activities
We are currently redeveloping our outreach offering for years 9 to 11, so we are not currently scheduling visits for these year groups. If you are interested in activities for these year groups, please contact us and we can let you know when we have outreach activities ready to offer. In the meantime, you might want to consider our Spectroscopy in a Suitcase activity detailed in the section below.