Mission Starlight and IYPT

Sue Andrews used a grant from the IYPT Fund to take Mission Starlight to schools.

By Sue Andrews, Applied Materials Chemistry Committee

What is the connection between sun creams and the Periodic Table? The answer is titanium. Titanium (titanium dioxide to be more precise) is the ingredient found in sun creams that protects us from the harmful effects of UV light.  To celebrate the International Year of the Periodic Table (IYPT), I decided to apply for a grant to enable schools to take part in Mission Starlight, a global experiment on UV protection, which I developed for the RSC a few years ago.

The theme of the resource is based on the need to protect astronauts from harmful UV light. The activities provide opportunities for working scientifically and challenge students to use UV colour changing beads and a colour chart to investigate the effectiveness of various materials and coatings in blocking UV light; finally they use their results in open ended investigation to design the best combination of materials for a spacesuit or visor that could be used to protect astronauts on space missions beyond the Earth’s atmosphere.

I was thrilled to learn I had been successful in my bid. The grant enabled me to provide a box of resources for each school, containing UV reactive beads, UV torches, petri dishes and a variety of materials sufficient for all classes to carry out the investigations.

Three Wirral primary schools, Neston, Parkgate CE and Willaston CE, were keen to participate in the project and, in preparation, I delivered practical workshops for all teachers at each school. After introducing the background to the project, and the link with the RSC’s IYPT, everyone had the opportunity to participate in the investigations. They thoroughly enjoyed trying the activities and were thrilled to learn that the box of equipment would be theirs to keep for future classes to use.

The lead science teachers and I worked together to plan how the project might best be organised most appropriately in each school. Parkgate decided to hold an outdoor science day involving the participation of all classes from Reception to Year 6, a total of 173 children; Neston Primary planned a circus of activities for 90 children in Years 3, 4 and 5, whilst Willaston held a space themed week including Mission Starlight investigations for all 214 pupils!

The feedback from teachers and pupils has, without exception, been extremely positive. Teachers reported that the children were enthused, motivated and totally engaged throughout, raising questions and keen to carry out further investigative work based upon their activities.