St Mary's students take part in Royal Society of Chemistry's 'chemistree' challenge

The Royal Society of Chemistry challenged students to use the Christmas tree as a learning opportunity by creating a 'Chemistree'. As this was the year of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, the theme was 'Energy and Sustainability'. St Mary's GCSE Chemistry students took on this project and submitted their own ingenious chemistree.

The GCSE class created sustainable decorations based on the first twenty elements of the periodic table -- part of their Chemistry syllabus. Over a series of lunchtime sessions, volunteers from the class made and decorated their bioplastic decorations, which are made from milk. They then painted them with Christmas decoration on one side, and an element's chemical symbol on the other. Finally, they topped the tree with a lemon-powered LED light.

Well done to all the girls involved in creating the chemistree, and thanks to Mrs Alonso, Mrs Bielby and Mrs Shanks for their work and their commitment to running the lunch time clubs that made the project possible.

Find out more about GCSE Chemistry at St Mary's here.