Welsh wonder: Festival-goers flock to learn about chemistry as part of Eisteddfod events

The South West and Central Wales Local Section teamed up with their South East compatriots this summer to engage Eisteddfod visitors with chemistry in the Gwyddoniaeth a Thechnoleg (Science and Technology Village).

The Eisteddfod is an annual eight-day festival honouring Welsh life and culture, regularly attracting 80,000–100,000 visitors. The celebration can be traced back to 1176, with the first modern iteration being held in Aberdare in 1861.

Each year the celebration takes place in a different part of Wales alternating between the North and South. This August, it was held in Parc Ynysangharad, Pontypridd (pronounced pont-e-pre-th), about 10 miles north of Cardiff in the county of Rhondda Cynon Taf.

The Eisteddfod attracts visitors from a range of backgrounds from family groups with young children to adults looking to discuss and debate all aspects of society, including the application of chemistry to achieve a sustainable future.

The activities contributed by RSC members addressed this challenge with pH measurement using everyday household items and red cabbage indicator, hook-a-duck to discuss water pollution and a virtual reality walkthrough of semi-conductor production.

We also featured hydrogen technology with a pedal-powered electrolyser and fuel cells to demonstrate the use of hydrogen to store electricity from sustainable sources. This initiated a number of fruitful discussions on the use of hydrogen power in transport and storage applications, highlighting the strong position of these technologies in South Wales.

We also ran three Her Awr Fach (Mini Hour Challenge) ‘build a molecule’ workshops, introducing visitors to the joys of molecular model building. Each attendee built simple molecules that they combined to form an amino acid. At the end of each session, we explained how these join together to form proteins and assemble a chain from the amino acids the session had produced.

Activities were chosen around four themes: energy and environment, water and food, chemistry and health, and sustainability.

The pH measurement activity can spark a discussion about acidity within different foods, and how antiacid stomach tablets can help relieve acidic reflux. This was complemented with a compact UV-VIS spectrometer which directed the conversation towards how the indicator's colour change can be quantified for analysis and monitoring, leading to a wider discussion about the role of sensors.

Our hook-a-duck had a different medication written on the back of each duck, which was useful for starting discussions of the challenges of pharmaceutical pollution in wastewater. The hook-a-duck worked very well to entertain young children (and adults) while more in-depth discussions were had with the accompanying adults.

The electrolyser and hydrogen fuel cells allowed visitors to split water into hydrogen and oxygen and then use the hydrogen to generate electricity. This led to numerous conversations on the hydrogen economy and the use of hydrogen to store electrical power and smooth the supply from renewables. Wales is a major contributor to this area for the UK and has ongoing debates about on-shore wind turbines.

The virtual reality walk-through of semiconductors’ production and uses gave visitors an experience of virtual reality and an insight into how semiconductors are made along with some of their end uses. This also gives
rise to opportunities to link the necessity of semiconductors in everyday life and start engaging in discussion on their wider usage, as well as to promote the growing semiconductor industry in Wales.

These activities were delivered by a team of 30 local section members drawn from Cardiff University and Swansea University with research groups from the Cardiff and Swansea Schools of Chemistry, Swansea Chemical Engineering, Cardiff Catalysis Institute, as well as companies including Pharmaron, ISCA and Severn Trent Water.

Our youngest volunteers were in secondary education and worked alongside retired members taking time to staff the stall. In fact, the diverse team spanned seven decades in age, and included members using chemistry in both academic and industrial settings.

Across the festival, the team engaged with more than 7,000 people ranging from young children to retirees, with a lot of enthusiasm for each of the activities and many useful discussions about chemistry.

Professor David J Willock, Cardiff University, and Joe Paul-Taylor, Swansea University

Acknowledgement: The Local Section teams were supported in this public facing event by a grant from the RSC Outreach Fund, which made the RSC presence at the Eisteddfod possible through the provision of consumables and covering expenses.