May 15, 2025

STEAM in Action with Royal Society of Chemistry

The Schools Analyst Competition from the Royal Society of Chemistry, enabled Leighton Park’s Lower Sixth Chemistry students to demonstrate and expand on existing chemistry knowledge, skills, and aptitude for analytical science through practical STEAM experiments based on relevant problems.

The competition consists of playing the role of analytical chemists assisting the Department of Housing to evaluate the suitability of an old industrial area for building new houses. Each team was provided with some samples taken from the soils and waste heaps for analysis in three different tests to determine whether the ground is suitable for building houses on, and if not, suggesting how the developers might make the area safe.

Test One included treating the land and neutralise thiosulfate, testing the concentration of the pollutant. In this experiment students performed a titration using iodine solution and a starch indicator to determine the concentration of thiosulfate present in the soil.

Test Two identified azo-dyes (contaminants) in the soil. Samples of the soil were taken, extracted into a mixture of water and acetone, then concentrated down to give the sample for analysis. In this experiment students used a thin-layer chromatography to separate out the dye mixture to determine what the contaminants are.

Test Three set the scene of two small hills which on probing, discovered that the hills aren’t made entirely of soil and there’s a white granular substance mixed in. Previously used as a dumping ground for inorganic salt waste from a glassmaking factory. In this experiment the participants were provided with a sample of the white powder found in the hills, along with a range of metal salts to act as standards. They then performed two sets of experiments to identify the metal cation in the powder through a flame test, and the inorganic anion through a series of chemical reactions.

Olivia (Lower Sixth) explained about this exciting STEAM opportunity: “I really love doing these challenges as you get the practical element. Sometimes in A-level chemistry you don’t get as much hands-on experience but these extra opportunities means we’re figuring stuff out and having to do it ourselves”.

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