G4G IV: The Global Experiment

At the start of the RSC's Chemistry Week RSC Belgium took the RSC Global Experiment 2013 to the fourth Greenlight for Girls Day in Brussels on Saturday November 16. In all around 100 girls took part in the experiment in two packed workshop sessions. The venue for G4G IV was the International School of Brussels in Watermael-Boitsfort. The RSC team had a great time running the workshops in which the girls measured the vitamin C content of fruits and vegetables.

Puctured above is the RSC Belgium team for the day with a couple of G4G enthusiasts. The RSC Belgium team consisted of (from left to right above) ElisaMaupas, Sophie Hollanders, Kim Eekelers and RSC executive committee member Becki Scott with section secretary Tim Reynolds (behind the camera). 

Each of the workshops brought together around an enthusiastic group of fifty young women aged 11 to 15. Most participants were anglophone but the RSC Belgium team was ready and able to work with the girls in French and Dutch too. 

Each of the students got to do the RSC Global experiment calibrating for vitamin 'C' and then assessing the vitamin in  a range of fruit and vegetable: apple, kiwi fruit, oranges, cauliflower and broccoli. Amazingly, despite the vast numbers, no one painted themselves in iodine! 

"The kids had a really good time," said Tim Reynolds. "It was challenging to get everything done in the 45 minutes allocated to the workshop sessions - but everyone got to do some 'hands-on chemistry' - and we all had some good fun."

Other chemical based workshops offered during the day included sessions on cosmetics and fragrances, 'bath bombs' and experiments from the hit TV series the 'Big Bang Theory'. Other workshops focused on IT, physics, engineering and biotechnology.

Over 200 young ladies attended the day had all had a great time taking some fantastic memories, a goody bag and their own personalised labcoats. RSC pens, stickers and fluffies were in great demand! 

About G4G
The Greenlight for Girls organisation is a Brussels-based, international non-profit organization that works to promote science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) to girls of all ages and backgrounds. The main aim is to stimulate greater participation of girls, young women and career-age women in STEM-related studies and careers. To achieve this mission, G4G carry out a range of activities around the world, with a special focus on reaching less-advantaged communities.

RSC Belgium has supported the GreenlightforGirls initiative from its inception in Brussels and provided workshop session at all four of the annual events so far. 

RSC Belgium launches 2013 Chemistry Challenge

Following a small pilot run in 2010 and two highly successful full runs in 2011 and 2012, RSC Belgium Section is happy to announce its Schools Chemistry Challenge 2013. 

The RSC Belgium Chemistry Challenge competition is open to students from any school in Belgium. The section is looking to make the 2013 Challenge an even bigger chemistry competition! In 2012, well over 100 students took part.

Details of the 2013 competition format can be accessed here. The Chemistry Challenge questions will be set in English, but may be answered in English, French, Dutch or German.

The competition is open to school students in their penultimate year of High School (usually aged 16 – 17) and consists of a total of two hours of written test papers held in individual schools and designed to demonstrate the participants’ knowledge of chemistry and their ability to think logically.

Two formats
For 2013 the Challenge can be taken in two ways: either as a single two-hour paper (as for 2012) or split into three stand-alone, separate sections (Section A 30 minutes, Section B 60 minutes and Section C 30 minutes) which teachers might find easier to work into their timetable constraints. Teachers would need to decide on their preference by the time they tell us the approximate numbers of students that will participate in the 2013 challenge from their school.

To get a taste of the Challenge you can access the 2012 papers here.

There are plenty of attractive cash prizes on offer for the highest scoring entries, as well as certificates acknowledging participation for everyone who takes part.

We have found that students find that participation in the Challenge is a valuable ‘plus point’ when completing University application forms, clearly demonstrating an ‘extra curricular’ interest in science.

More information
For further information, please contact our challenge coordinator Rita Woodward via email and section secretary Tim Reynolds as soon as possible.

The common curriculum on which the competition will be based will be circulated for validation by teachers in the near future. The Challenge papers will then be distributed to participating schools in mid-May with completed papers to be returned to Rita during June.