Open House London comes to Burlington House
175 minutes for chemistry
On 17 September 27 of our employees gave their 175 minutes for chemistry by helping out at Open House London at Burlington House, our London headquarters. Adrian Robinson, the project manager for this event tells us about the impact of 175 minutes for chemistry on both the volunteers and the visitors.
Chemistry, architecture and a lot of dedicated volunteers what is the connection? Open House London! There have been so many ways in which people have been giving 175 minutes of their time for chemistry this year and 27 volunteers from the Royal Society of Chemistry decided to give their time to support our event for Open house London. I wanted to find out more about the impact of this event on both volunteers and visitors.
Open House was started in 1992 and for one day every year many of London’s buildings that are generally closed off to the public open their doors and welcome the general public in. Open City (the charity which organises Open House London every year) hopes that by opening up these buildings the general public can become more knowledgeable and become involved with dialogue about architecture. As an organisation we’ve taken part in Open House London for many years now as it is an excellent opportunity for the general public to see the beautiful architecture on show in Burlington House while learning more about our society and activities.
Our staff give their 175 minutes
This year we entertained well over 1500 visitors at Burlington House. As well as the stunning architecture of the library and rooms like the Council and Hinshelwood rooms on show there were many displays which showcased the history of chemistry and the Royal Society of Chemistry. Some of the most popular items on display were the President’s mace, The Sceptical Chymist (from 1680) and the obligation book signed by Queen Elisabeth II. There was also an interactive chemistry demonstration that was a hit with children and families.
A dedicated group of our staff volunteered their time, giving up their Saturday to make sure the event was successful. All of these volunteers gave up well over 175 minutes for chemistry and because of their efforts a lot of people got to experience the architecture of Burlington House while also learning about chemistry and its history.
Two of the volunteers were Anna Meehan and James Moore, both Publishing Editors at the Royal Society of Chemistry, who work on journals like Chemical Communications, RSC Advances and Chemical Science. I decided to talk to them and find out more about why they gave up their spare time for chemistry. Like all of the volunteers Anna and James were well aware of the 175th Anniversary and the initiative of giving up 175 minutes for chemistry throughout the year and could see the impact they had on the wider community.
I gave up my time as I wanted to give something back to the community. I’d never volunteered for Open House before but had heard it was good and I found it a really rewarding experience. It was great being able to talk to members of the public who were really enthusiastic about being at the Royal Society of Chemistry. Trying to get more people interested in chemistry and science in general is a good use of my time!
I volunteered at Open House last year and loved it so was definitely up for doing it again. This year I demonstrated our practical interactive chemistry experiments to the visitors. Everyone who came to Burlington House was really friendly and were interested in the experiments we were demonstrating – they went down really well.
Architecture and Chemistry
During the event I had the opportunity to talk to some of the many visitors as well. Deanna Miller was one such visitor who is a regular visitor every year to buildings which open their doors for Open House London. When asked if she enjoyed her visit she replied with “loved it” and Deanna talked about the excellent mix of architecture and chemistry that we had on show during the event. Deanna particularly liked the Victorian central heating system and the chemistry related stained glass window.
Deanna’s experience of the Royal Society of Chemistry that day was only possible due to the hard work of the volunteers present on that day. These volunteers gave up well over 175 minutes of their time for chemistry this year didn’t just do it because this year is an anniversary year, they can be found there every year giving up their spare time for chemistry. From my experience of the day I know that every volunteer had an impact on someone’s perception of chemistry which is a great result of their 175 minutes for chemistry.
175 minutes for chemistry
As the oldest chemical society in the world, we celebrated our 175th anniversary in 2016. We wanted to mark this milestone by recognising the important contributions our community makes to the chemical sciences. We asked our members and supporters to dedicate 175 minutes to chemistry in 2016 and share their stories with us. We featured these stories throughout the year on our website, in print in RSC News, and on social media using #time4chem.
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