911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ

Teaching Fellows, Dr Norman Chan and Dr Julie Kalmoni at the Department of Chemistry, organised the department’s first Global Summer School (GSS), marking a significant milestone in the international expansion of its outreach programmes.

The initiative brought together 60 students from around the world for four days of intensive and inspiring academic experience; each day was led by a different member of the teaching staff to provide the students with a taste of different aspects of chemistry with truly exceptional results. Students rated their overall satisfaction with an impressive 4.32 out of 5 across the four days (where n=50). 

Day 1: Chemical Kitchen / VR Lab experience

Before heading to the Chemistry labs, students made tofu from scratch in the Chemical Kitchen, heating filtered liquid from blended soya beans, adding magnesium chloride to curdle it, then pressing the curds into a block of tofu and turning it into something genuinely delicious. Judging by the reactions in the room, it was a hit. The experiment is part of the chemistry curriculum, preparing students for real lab work in a low-stakes, hands-on environment.

The Chemical Kitchen is an innovative pedagogy project at 911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ, led by Dr Jakub Radzikowski and Dr Luke Delmas, which uses the parallel world of professional gastronomy to teach laboratory and professional skills. Chefs and scientists rely on the same core skills: precision, following a protocol exactly, careful observation, working under time pressure, so cooking gives students a low-stakes way to build those habits before they ever set foot in a "real" lab. Since 2019, it's introduced thousands of 911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ students to lab practice this way.

We also provided a virtual reality lab experience developed in the Department in collaboration with the Digital Media Lab for the students in preparation for the lab day the next day. Learn more about the VR Briscoe Lab.

Day 2: Synthesis of molecules

On Day 2 of GSS, Dr Julie Kalmoni and Dr Zarik Yusaf delivered a synthetic practical to the students—a multistep organic synthesis of the blue dye indigo carmine. This aimed to introduce students to studying chemistry at 911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ by engaging in a hands-on activity that eased them into the inquiry-based approach that is used in the curriculum. On the day before, the students worked through a pre-lab session and a worksheet, alongside a lab notebook session. The practical session began with a brief introduction, followed by the experiment, which was structured into four distinct parts: Synthesis of Indigo, Synthesis of Indigo Carmine, Solubility Investigation, and Indigo Carmine and Glucose Redox Investigation. The students then completed a post-lab session which included a survey and a worksheet. Initial student feedback was very positive, and the final redox investigation proved to be a wonderfully visual hit.

Day 3: Unlocking the Secrets of Molecules – When Science Met Games.

Physical chemistry can often feel rigid and abstract to students — so we (Dr Norman Chan and his Entourage) set out to change that. Through a series of specially developed gamified workshops, students explored the world of molecular analysis in a hands-on and engaging way. The day opened with a "Pub Quiz"-style demonstration, where students worked together to uncover the science behind captivating photochemical phenomena through discussions. This was followed by the Molecular Detective Game, an immersive challenge inspired by a real-life laboratory incident, where teams applied logic, deductive reasoning, and chemical knowledge to solve a scientific mystery—mirroring the way real chemists approach the unknown. The day ended with the LEGO Spectroscopy Experiment, where students designed, built, and optimised their very own spectrometers from LEGO bricks. This exercise provided a deeper and more intuitive understanding of spectroscopy, compared to a more conventional spectroscopy practical. Feedback from students was very positive, with many describing the activities as fun and engaging and that they enjoyed the visual impact and teamwork these activities encouraged. Be sure to check back for more follow-up articles.

Day 4: Introduction to computational modelling

Computational chemistry is rarely included in outreach activities, since it is considered an advanced topic and therefore inaccessible to beginners. Building on their experience teaching computational chemistry in the undergraduate curriculum, Dr João Malhado and Dr Giuseppe Mallia designed this activity to challenge this stereotype and present a more diverse image of chemistry and of chemists.

In this activity, the students first learnt how to use an open-source software, Avogadro, to create a molecular model and measure bond distances and angles. They were then broken into sections where each section faced a different problem they had to address using what they had just learnt. The challenges ranged from modelling various molecules to inspecting the relationship between molecular geometry and energy, to drawing the various isomers of organic molecules to introduce students to crystal structures and atomic positions within a unit cell. Overall, the students had fun and enjoyed the learning activity. The post-session survey showed that it was well received and was rated 4.11 / 5 on average by students (46 responses).

Acknowledgements :

A huge thank you to all the organisers for running the sessions, our mentors and GTAs for their invaluable support, and the technicians for preparing such wonderful lab experiences for the students.

People Involved:

Dr Norman (Chi Long) Chan and Dr Julie Kalmoni -  GSS Chemistry Organisers, VR/physical and synthetic chemistry leads, respectively)

Dr Joao Pedro Malhado and Dr Giuseppe Mallia (Computation and modelling leads)

Dr Jakub Radzikowski (Chemical Kitchen lead)

Technicians – Kat Harris, Jame Carvalho, Dr Hannah Case, Dr Zarik Yusaf, work experience students.

Raj Sandhu and Prof. Nick Brooks for facilitating the logistics.

Chemistry Mentors – Hazel Pung, Zeynep Akin, Charles Ramos, Jeong An, Fatma Batmaz, Ilmi Rahman, Hazel Pung, Anny Weng Chen, Lucas Emmott, Aysha Begum, Ella Harbison, Zara Mahmood, Safiya Zaman,

PhD GTAs - Ding Ding; Michelle E Wong Chap Lan; Ruoyu Gao; Xiaotong Wang; Xunyi Zhu; Yeyang Sun; Nina O'Toole; Seshagiri Sakthimani;  Bronwyn R Griffiths; Gabriel Duffett; Sophie Giraudon; Luke P. Siani; Emma Straker; Matthew Grannan, Dominika Daremiak and Hodan Warsame.