Join us at our state-of-the-art research laboratories

We run workshops in our laboratories aimed at secondary school students. They will benefit from practical sessions that teach scientific principles and methods.

The activities we offer are a great way to put the science you teach into context. Our spectroscopy workshops are offered free of charge.

Your students will enjoy hands-on exercises in groups using our laboratories and equipment.

Our workshops cover subjects relevant to the science curriculum.

Spectroscopy workshops

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

Students complete a practical synthesis or separation using the university laboratories and equipment. Students then analyse their synthesised compounds using Thin-layer chromatography (TLC), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), mass spectrometry and infrared (IR) spectrometry 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.

We will also be offering workshops for students in Year 9 and upwards. We are currently redeveloping our outreach offering for these year groups. If interested, please contact us to enquire about what activities are being planned for the 2024/25 academic year.

Invite our student ambassadors to your school

Our student ambassadors offer hands-on chemistry activities or talk about what it is like to study chemistry at university.

Spectroscopy in a suitcase

This activity is suitable for students from Year 10 and above.

The department is part of the Royal Society of Chemistry's Spectroscopy in a Suitcase programme. While the actual programme was discontinued in 2020, the department still proactively offers this activity as an outbound workshop, which provides portable nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and infrared (IR) spectroscopy instruments to be taken into schools.

Trained postgraduate ambassadors can visit the school to deliver activities or the equipment can be loaned to schools for trained teachers to use in their lessons. Students get hands-on experience of using the equipment in their own classrooms.

School talks

This activity is suitable for students in Year 7 and above.

Staff or postgraduate students can visit your school to give a talk about studying chemistry at university, careers in chemistry or aspects of cutting edge research.

Host an undergraduate student for a term

Our students can do a project in the third year of their degree where they work with teachers in local schools.

From October to May they can provide teaching and practical assistance whilst developing a special project in the school.

Inspire your students with our school outreach activities

We offer fun, hands-on educational chemistry activities. Learn how your school science students can benefit from our outreach programme.