Wychwood School launched their 4th annual Oxfordshire Youth Chemistry Conference last Thursday, with pupils from 11 different schools (including nine MCS pupils) showcasing their scientific talent in the form of posters, talks and essays.

 

 

This year’s theme was ‘Out-of-this-World Applications of Chemistry to Space Exploration’ and the pupils tackled a wide variety of interesting questions, ranging from Clement’s essay on the Applications of Spectroscopy in Astronomy, to Yifeng’s essay on Plasma-Chemical Hybrid Ion Propulsion Systems.

The conference opened with a recorded message from Helen Sharman, the first British astronaut, followed by a fascinating ‘Introduction to Astrochemistry’ and the weird but wonderful reactions that take place in space by the conference’s keynote speaker, Professor Claire Vallance.

Then the pupil presentations took off, including fantastic talks from Sidra, Calvin and Sara from MCS. There were some excellent essays and posters from Ian, Henry, Jay, and Leo too. Sara won the ‘Most Inspiring Talk’ category for her speech on rocket fuels (partly due to her adapting it last minute to account for the fact that she was the third speaker to present on this topic!).

Congratulations to all the pupils who took part, and a huge thank you to Mrs Parry and Ms Donaldson for making the trip possible. A massive thank you also goes to Wychwood School for organising and hosting such a fantastic event!