Chemistry Trip

This week, thirteen of our Lower Sixth students took part in a “Chemistry Twilight Practical Session” in the Chemistry Department at Southampton University. In this exciting experiment, the pupils were challenged to extract the natural product trimyristin from a sample of nutmeg. In doing so, they developed their practical skills and learned about lots of new techniques, including recrystallisation, vacuum filtration, and thin layer chromatography. They were also shown how to analyse their product through melting point determination, and even ran their own infrared spectrum. The pupils certainly got a lot out of the day, enjoying the opportunity to perform an experiment in a recently refurbished, fully equipped undergraduate teaching lab, and to advance their practical skills. Just as importantly, we hope it allowed them to find out more about what it is like to study science at university, and inspired them to continue pursuing STEM subjects in future!