On Tuesday 8^th May myself and three other year 8 students (Monty Baker, Raff Uppal and Marcos Vega) travelled to Bristol University to take part in the ‘Salters festival of chemistry’. In the morning we completed three experiments in our pairs with the aim of identifying a criminal from 6 suspects. In the first one, we reacted 6 different substances with 3 different compounds and water. For the second practical we had to put some substances on to chromatography paper and put them in a solvent to assess what they were made of. Finally, we mixed some substances with some universal indicator to assess the pH level of each. We discussed our results and chose our criminal. In the afternoon, we had 2 bottles of copper sulphate, one with a pH level of 5 and another with an unknown concentration. Using distilled water, we had to make five different concentrations of copper sulphate and record the homeopathic dilution of each using a machine worth £4,000! Using our results, we had to find the concentration of the copper sulphate. For the last part of the day we watched a show which included the many things that you can do with liquid nitrogen and dry ice. The day was very enjoyable and I hope that we get to do some experiments with liquid nitrogen in school.

Finn Tetley 8O1