More resources, more prizes

More news on new chemistry resources for teachers has come our way from European Schoolnet. The "Chemistry: all about you" project was developed by European Schoolnet on behalf of the European Petrochemical Association (EPCA) and is aimed at secondary schools teachers.

"Chemistry: all about you" is a project to teach chemistry in a fun and innovative way. It includes an amazing video about chemistry in our life and a teachers' guidelines to plan and support lessons using the video developed by the EPCA. The Teachers' guidelines and the video are available in French, Dutch, German, Italian, Spanish, Norwegian, Croatian and Hungarian in addition to English.


The “Chemistry: all about you” team are keen to receive any feedback on the project that you may have on the content and in particular the teachers' guidelines.

Bryson Prize
The RSC Bill Bryson Prize is designed to encourage and recognise clear science ommunication in schools and colleges. The prize is supported by well-known writer and commentator Bill Bryson (right) who is also involved with the judging process.

For 2012 the Bill Bryson Prize offers the chance to welcome the Olympics to the UK. To support this major event the 2012 competition theme will be "Science and Sport”, to celebrate the major role that science plays in supporting sport around the world.

The Prize is open to students aged 5-18 and entries can be submitted in all formats, from posters to power points to puzzles! The competition will be judged in three categories, primary school, secondary school and International (non-UK) school, with both individual and group entries accepted. The best entries from each category will receive a cash prize of £500 for their institution, and £100 for the winning students – so well worth it!

The closing date for entries is 31 March 2012 and more information including downloadable application forms can be found on the RSC website .

LearnChemistry with RSC

The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) has just launched a comprehensive online site dedicated to chemistry education. And it is open to all.

The RSC's LearnChemistry website brings together hundreds of resources, a place to share ideas and support for both teachers and students.


The RSC has developed a huge range of educational resources and the LearnChemistry initiative brings them together in one place to make them easily accessible and searchable.

The site also takes a throughly modern approach to teaching using videos, simulations and interactive games to capture students attention and bring the fascination of chemistry into the classroom or home setting.

Talk chemistry
The site features the 'Talk Chemistry' area which provides teachers with a platform to talk about curriculum issues, share news and opinions.

The site also includes Gridlocks - a interactive chemistry game based on the Sudoku concept and a set of videos 'Faces of Chemistry' developed with industrial partners such as Johnson Matthey, Procter & Gamble and Syngenta. In addition the RSC has relaunched and augmented its Visual Elements Periodic Table (see below) to coincide with the LearnChemistry launch.


Content will be continuously added to the site. For example in March the RSC will launch its 2012 Olympic-themed chemistry and sport site. This will examine the role chemistry plays in every sport from archery to aerobics.

The RSC sees LearnChemistry as a community-led site so it is encouraging feedback and input from teachers and students. So why not take a look at LearnChemistry and help us create a new generation of people excited by chemistry.

Science in School
Another web-based resource that will be of interest is 'Science in School' - the European journal for science teachers. It covers not only biology, physics and chemistry, but also earth sciences, engineering and medicine, highlighting the best in teaching and cutting-edge research, and focusing on interdisciplinary work. The contents include teaching materials, recent discoveries in science, education projects, interviews with young scientists and inspiring teachers, and much more.


'Science in School' is freely available. Online articles are published in many European languages and an English-language print version is distributed across Europe. Originally supported by the European Commission, the journal is published and funded by EIROforum, a partnership between eight of Europe’s largest intergovernmental research organisations including including CERN, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL).

European school teachers are invited to help by:
• Submitting articles for publication
• Joining the referee panel and helping to decide which articles to publish
• Reviewing books and other resources for teachers
• Translating articles from English into their native languages.

To subscribe, learn more about the journal or read all the articles visit the Science in School website.