Outreach

2020

ESR 1 Kenji Kopf , ESR 2 Giovanna Zanella, ESR 3 Alba Carretera Cerdan and ESR 5 Victor Garcia Vazquez: Kenji, Giovanna, Alba and Victor each wrote a blog post reflecting on their individual experiences of being a final year PhD student when the global Coronavirus pandemic hit. You can read and comment on each of their blog posts here: https://sites.google.com/a/sheffield.ac.uk/catmec/blog-posts

ESR 4 Larry Hoteite: On the 7th and 8th of September 2020, Larry took part in the Molecular Design and Catalysis PGR virtual symposium. He had the opportunity to talk about his latest research work towards the synthesis of nitrogen heterocycles, and particularly towards fused polycyclic and 3-fluoro- piperidines. Furthermore, Larry emphasized the importance of these building-blocks in medicinal chemistry, and briefly explained how the incorporation of a fluorine atom into a drug candidate could improve its physicochemical properties. This was a great opportunity for Larry to further enhance his scientific communication skills and find out more about the breadth of his department’s research.

ESR 6 Martin Pauze: On 23rd March 2020, Martin had the opportunity to present my PhD project the Discord server of “Le vortex”, a Youtube channel supported by Arte, who propose to popularize science videos through public engagement, which is an important part of MSCA projects. The community is composed of people with various background, from no diploma to graduate, a great diversity of profession and aged from 16 to more than 40 years old.

The presentation consists of a PowerPoint supported talk of 30minute follow by a questions/answer session of one hour, online. Martin reached more than 35 people in the audience and the presentation was then uploaded onto a dedicated Youtube channel (https://youtu.be/eeZxSe5fPbA), which had attained 230 views at the end of August 2020. This opportunity is a great approach for popularizing science in the context of confinement; people were receptive to this format. In addition, I have been surprised to be able to reach more than 250 people who mainly do not have any chemistry background..

2019

ESR 1 Kenji Kopf and ESR 6 Martin Pauze: On 6th August 2019, Kenji and Martin decided to participate at an open discussion in the campus of Stockholm University recognising that as Marie Skłodowska-Curie Ambassadors it is important to promote their research to all public. At that end, students and non-scientist took part to a free talk in order to promote interest in their field via explanation of different topics and application of their research project.

This experiment was 1) a great value to the promotion of the Marie-Curie research program and 2) a great opportunity to vulgarise our research to students who are not familiar with these topics.

ESR 4 Larry Hoteite: On Wednesday 20th March 2019, Larry presented a research poster at the Science Graduate School Showcase which was held at the Octagon Centre in Sheffield. This event was attended by academic, research staff and students from across the Faculty of Science’s seven departments (biology, physics and astronomy, chemistry, maths, biomedical science, psychology, animal and plant sciences). The key point was to communicate his research work about the formation of functionalised piperidines via a palladium-catalysed annulation strategy to a general scientific audience and answer to their questions without using professional jargon. Most of the people that attended were unfamiliar with his work, so it was an excellent training for improving interdisciplinary communication skills. They were curious about the concept of catalysis, the role of palladium and also the importance of piperidine-based structures in medicinal chemistry. However, the most challenging part was the questions addressed by non-experts concerning chemical reactivity. To answer their questions, Larry used molecular models so they can visualise the structures in a three-dimensional space. They found it entertaining and in the same time quite useful to understand his explanations. Besides developing scientific communications skills, this event was a great opportunity to network and learn more about the wide range of research being carried out in our university.

ESR 2 Giovanna Zanella: On 20 March 2019, USFD seconded researcher, Giovanna, presented a poster at Science Showcase 2019, an event that aims to spread the strength and breadth of research among different departments of the university. The event was attended by over 200 Faculty of Science's postgraduate research students from various departments including Psychology, Physics, Mathematics, Agriculture, Astronomy and Biology. Giovanna was challenged to present her project “A combined computational and experimental study on tandem Gold-catalyzed [3,3]-rearrangement/Nazarov reactions” to people without a chemistry background and with different ways of thinking using a poster to help people visualize the main concepts of the topic: why gold is used in catalysis, why computational chemistry is useful and how the synergy between experiments and calculations works. The event encourages interdisciplinary thinking and collaboration and indeed, Giovanna was asked many questions from those in attendance, some basic and others totally off topic, which helped her to develop her communication skills to explain elaborate concepts in a versatile way. It was interesting and exciting to see people enjoying themselves and learning something completely new. She received positive feedback and after the event, the researchers form different disciplines were able to spend some social time together talking about their research and PhD experiences, discovering that even those in different departments actually have many things in common!

ESR 3 Alba Carretero Cerdán: On 23 January, 2019, University of the Basque country (UPV/EHU) seconded researcher, Alba, took part in the “Jornada de Puertas Abiertas 2019” at the Faculty of Chemistry where high school students were encouraged to study any of the specialities in science and to show them why chemistry is interesting. Alongside 5 basic chemistry experiments (ink components by chromatography, nappy absorbent, pH, titration and distillation), Alba had the opportunity to introduce herself and explain what research she is doing at UPV/EHU and illustrate possible opportunities after the master degree . Besides gaining actual hands-on experience in chemistry, students were able to ask questions and provide feedback. This experience has also been very useful for Alba as she has enhanced her public science communication skills.

ESR5 Victor Garcia Vazquez: On December 18th, Victor visited the High School IES Sixto Marco (Elche, Spain) and gave a chemistry lecture with students aged 18 (Last course of High School). First, he describe his experience in chemistry, from the bachelor degree to working as a PhD student, and then discussed some general experiments on decomposition of H2O2 into O2 and water catalyzed by potassium iodide and the second one was the oxidation of luminol generating chemoluminiscence. He also gave examples relating specifically to his research project and explained how the chemistry that is developed in the laboratory in then applied in industrial processes and important to society. Furthermore, he explained catalysis and one of the most important catalytic processes developed during the 20th century, the Haber-Bosch synthesis of ammonia.

Feedback from the teacher included how it was nice to explain some concepts explained to the students during their course in a different way. The students asked a lot of questions about the university and living in such different country such as Sweden. Some of them asked for my email address to have the possibility of asking more questions about their futures. Overall, it was an amazing experience from both sides.

2018

ESR2 Giovanna Zanella: On March 7th, Giovanna took part in the project “Jornadas de Puertas Abiertas 2018” at the Faculty of Chemistry in UPV/EHU. The department hosted students from high school who a re going to face the university world and have a certain inclination for chemistry. Choosing the right faculty is probably one of the most difficult decisions in life and hearing experiences from satisfied people who have already past this moment can be very useful. The activity had the aim to show to these young students how chemistry is at the basis of everyday phenomena through simple experiments in the university lab and outline the formative offer of UPV/EHU concerning courses, experimental practices, workshops. Giovanna had the opportunity to introduce herself, talk about her background and explain what she is doing at UPV/EHU in order to illustrate also the possible opportunity after graduation if they are interested to keep on with the research.

In the lab, four different experiments (Surface tension, Sublimation, pH and Spontaneous reaction and ΔG0) were explained and demonstrated. The student provided positive feedback; they made questions about science, the university organization and future perspectives. This experience has been very useful also for Giovanna, because she has enhanced her communicative skills.

ESR6 Martin Pauze: On March 17th 2018, Martin took the opportunity to join the UPV/EHU Open Day on the Gipuzkoa campus in Donostia. This annual event allows students from high school and their family to visit the university for future applications. The main idea was to show the campus by walking and give demonstrations in the different departments. Martin was in the chemistry building and his demonstration aims to explain why something more dense than water can float or making soap bubbles and also to highlight the surface tension phenomenon. Other demonstrations included about sublimation, pH and spontaneous reactions. The aim of the demonstrations is to give an answer to simple question that can be explained with a fundamental principle. This format allows the researcher to speak about science, of course, but also to share career experiences, background, and to answer different questions about career development. It can be easy for a student to be overwhelmed about the new world that university can be, and making a good decision about the future is never a piece of cake. This academic but also informal atmosphere is the perfect way to share a good moment and to transmit the scientific fibre.

Students were impressed with the university and even more in a lab. The main difficulty was to get comfortable. The best idea was to do an interactive presentation, to ask them simple questions and then get them to manipulate, like making bubbles and break them for example. Creating a laid back atmosphere allows them, in turn, to ask questions about how we reach university, what kind of job we can apply for afterwards, or simply, if we are happy or if we regret our decisions. Not all of them are going to apply for science studies, but at least all of them enjoyed the Open Day and get a better idea of what it is and will help them to make their choice

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ESR1 Kenji Kopf and ESR4 Larry Hoteite Around seventy-six students from nineteen schools across UK visited our department on the 23rd of May 2018 to take part in the Salters’ Institute Festival of Chemistry. This exciting day of practical-chemistry invited teams of four 11-13 year olds to perform experiments in a university environment. The nationwide Salters’ Institute Festivals of Chemistry are an initiative of the Salters’ Institute whose aim is to promote the appreciation of chemistry and related sciences amongst the young through practical chemistry. In addition, since 2005 the Salters’ Festivals of Chemistry have been in partnership with the Royal Society of Chemistry. This Salters’ Festival of Chemistry is one of the many festivals which are taking place at Universities/Colleges throughout the UK and Ireland between March and June 2018. Students are tested on their practical skills, teamwork and ability to work to deadlines while still performing all necessary tasks. More importantly it is to show how fun chemistry, and science in general, can be! This year’s festival offered two different challenges for participants. The first, called the Salters Challenge, tasked students to find out “Who is the Prime Suspect” by using chromatography, test tube techniques and general deductive processing. The second, called the University Challenge, tasked students to make a solution of specific pH or colour using red cabbage as indicator. This experiment was used to introduce the concept of acid-base reactions and also the idea that molecules can change their properties depending on environmental conditions. Both challenges involve using practical chemistry techniques that students might not be able to perform in their schools.

All the schools (teachers and students) were really positive about the event and enjoyed their day which ended with awarding prizes to the students who demonstrated excellent teamwork and practical skills. It was a great experience for both us.

ESR 3 Alba Carretero Cerdán and ESR 5 Victor Garcia Vazquez On May 7th, Charlotta, a representative of Nobel Museum, went to Arrhenius Laboratoriet in Stockholm University (SU) to interview Victor and Alba. In this interview Charlotta asked them about the research that they develop at SU, the questions were focused on how they decided to be scientists when they were younger. Also, during the interview Victor and Alba designed an experiment intended to children. This experiment consisted in the use of the sodium polyacrylate that you could find in nappies as water absorbent, using different colours they obtained a beautiful snowy material. After that, Charlotta wrote the article in the Nobelbladet. (Nobelbladet 64.pdf)

Feedack from the Nobel museum: They loved the experience. Charlotta is looking for more activities to carry out in collaboration with SU and Victor and Alba really enjoyed the chance to explain their research and bring science closer to children.