From making elephant toothpaste to hunting ions

Elephant toothpaste, bouncy egg, ion hunting - spectacular experiments carried the show in the final of the Egis - Researcher’s Night National Chemistry Competition for Secondary School Students, held at the Egis Science and Technology Centre. Sometimes an immersive experience is enough to inspire more students to go in for chemistry, the basis for research and pharmaceutical drug development. However, the growing shortage of chemistry teachers is alarming. The best way to get youngsters interested in chemistry is through laboratory experiments, but they are often omitted, even in classes, held by specialised teachers.

Egis World

From making elephant toothpaste to hunting ions

Fri, Sep 30, 2022 9:45 PM

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Fri, Sep 30, 2022 9:45 PM

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How to turn a copper coin into a “silver” one? What makes the eggshell become flexible? How can we make “elephant toothpaste” or “sugar snake”? What does the chemist’s chameleon look like? In the final of the National Chemistry Competition, jointly organized by Egis and Researchers’ Night, the twelve participating teams had to conduct spectacular experiments and explain the causes of the chemical phenomena, just like researchers do in real life. However, without stimulating interest in science, in chemistry in particular, we won't have any researchers, therefore it is important to get children interested in natural sciences from primary school onwards.
This is quite a challenge. Based on the study conducted by the Szabó Szabolcs Foundation, there are 2600 chemistry teachers missing from the elementary and secondary education, that is, 50%-60% of such schools have no chemistry teachers at all. Looking at the admission numbers, it is getting increasingly difficult to supply enough science teachers, including chemistry teachers for the future.
This year, a total of thirty-one candidates started their studies in the integrated, one-tier 10-semester chemistry teacher training course, their number is significantly lower than the number of retirees who need to be replaced.
"These initiatives bring the world of research and science closer to children and to young people so they can experience its beauty. They allow students to explore complex natural phenomena in a real-life environment, to observ them closely and thus gain a better understanding of the scientific context. That is why I 'm glad that experiments plays a major role in our joint chemistry competition with Researchers' Night. They are the most spectacular part of the chemistry lessons, however, in practice, there is often no time for such activities " – said dr Klára András, HR and Communications Director of Egis.

The TFG team of the Toldy Ferenc High School (Adél Incze, Csongor Habány and Viktor Kovács) took the first place at the Egis Researchers' Night National High School Chemistry Competition. "Thanks to the many experiments I conducted, the kids already became captivated by chemistry in seventh grade. I believe, the secret to this is that we did a lot of experiments and also the students had plenty of opportunities to carry out the experiments themselves ”- revealed Zsóka Szabó, chemistry teacher and the students' mentor. The second place went to the team of the Munkácsy Mihály High School (Máté Ódor, Boldizsár Hajász and Milán Csesznyák; Kaposvár) and the BethlenXkémia team of the Bethlen Gábor High School of the Reformed Church and Szathmáry College (Maja Tordai, Gergely Balogh and László Bartucz; Hódmezővásárhely) came third.
We thank all the students and their teachers for their enthusiastic participation, once again, congratulations to the winners!

#knowledge #careerguidance

From making elephant toothpaste to hunting ions

From making elephant toothpaste to hunting ions

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