Molecules Network News

Twistane

Last week Diane from Wolgarston High School in Staffordshire email in to the Make-it-Molecular team telling us about her latest event at St Michaels Church Fete. Along side her were three students from the Sixth Form centre helping out 52 people making some really cool models of molecules.

She also mentioned that she got her local MP, Jermey Lefory MP,  in making a molecule of caffeine. This is a really awesome and has lead to a few interesting ideas that the team may have that other schools could implement – so well done!!!

Jermey Lefroy, MP

More News:

We have some more Make-it-Molecular kits that are going to be sent out to some new schools within the coming days so we will be welcoming them to the Network soon.

Scott


Links:
Jermey Lefroy, MP

World Cup Molecules

With the World Cup upon us I was excited to hear plans from Ruth Morgan at William Brookes School who are having a world cup themed make-it-molecular event - participants pick a country's flag and then have to find and make the molecules associated with the country before entering their flag into a sweepstake.

There's lots of fun to be had matching molecules to countries: France and ethanol, Brazil and caffeine and so on...

Molecules Network News

We've publised our first termly Molecules Network Newsletter. It contains news of activities, stories and event ideas from all the schools in the network. Highlights include:

	Hills Road Sixth Form College win this years competition for the most people to take part in make-it-molecular activities - they reached over 450 people this year!"
	Get a lolly if you make a molly" events at William Brookes School have proved popular with people of all ages making molecules at their school reunion - from 3 year olds to Granddads!

Plus lots of ideas for molecules based events - molecule building races, treasure hunts and more...

Trentham Gardens

A view over the Italian gardens at Trentham Gardens

Good morning everyone Scott here, just giving you an update of the event that happened over the weekend at Trentham Gardens.

The weekend itself went really, really well. We had lots and lots of people coming into the tent and exploring the world of molecules and many tired to build some for themselves. The weather held up and Saturday was our best day – very sunny with only a slight breeze. Sunday on the other hand was a little different with overcast of clouds and a few spots of rain, it wasn't until I left at 3pm when it really poured down with rain and poor Graeme and Josh got absolutely soaked.

Our tent was right next to the models already present, Carbon Rapture, and as people came into the gardens via the entrance, they were curious as to why we were there. Once they came inside we got them stuck into building some molecules. Many built the Fake Tan molecule and Graeme explained to them why this molecule makes people's skin brown and how this process links in with chicken being cooked. Below is a photo of Graeme showing some children how to build their molecules.

When people had finished building their molecules we took their photo which they are now able to obtain by viewing our Flickr site, see link at the bottom of this post or in the links section to the right. 

What's really cool is how many people were really interested in why the Make-it-Molecular team had a stand there – so we pointed out our Carbon Rapture models in the gardens and the new DNA model to go and take a look at. Below is a picture taken on Thursday once we completed the DNA model. It looks truly amazing and what's more great is that it looks apart of the rose arch way as if it belongs there.

So that was the weekend at Trentham Gardens. There are lots and lots of photos on our Flickr site so go and have a look at them....

Have a lovely day and I'll post back with any news as and when it comes in.

Scott.

Links

Flickr - our photo site

Trentham Gardens

Updates

So much has happened this week that todays post is jam packed with exciting new stories. One of which is an exciting new addition to the team and a goodbye/good luck for another member of the team.

This week we welcome Scott Sneddon to the Make-it-Molecualr team. Scott is an undergraduate at Keele University currently studying chemistry with biochemistry and about to enter his final year. He has won Outstanding Contribution to the Placement Project in the Widening Participations and Life Long Learning department Keelelink in May 2010. He will be keeping this news blogging site up to date with all the news stories that are happening within the Network and keeping you informed of any exciting events that are happening in the future.

Also this week we say our good byes and good lucks to Dr. Tess Phillips as she finishes this week for maternity leave, but don't worry she will be back very soon. We wish Tess and the baby all the best for the future.

The Make-it-Molecualr team are out and about this week installing a new model at Trentham Gardens, Staffordshire. The model is a sequence of DNA that corresponds to the exon section from chloroplasts in plant cells which is the coding region. This sequence encodes for a tRNA-Glu.

The photo above is all the DNA bases laid out in the lab after being cleaned and sorted out into their base paring – G with C in one area and T with A in another.

On Thursday the team went along to Trentham Gardens to begin building up the DNA sequence in the rose archway. The team are there to open up the new garden season at Trentham Gardens on Saturday, June 12 from 10am onwards and we're back again on Sunday, June 13 from 10am. We'll be helping people make some really cool models of molecules and taking their photo too. So why not come down and see the awesome DNA model and have a go at building a molecule.

After the event all of the photos and information will be posted here first with a summary of the day.

The team has just signed up to the photo viewing site called Flickr to show case all of the photos that we take at events. Our photo section is pretty much empty at the moment but after the event at Trentham Gardens we should have some quite interesting photos. We'll provide you with a link on Monday so you can have a look at all the photos.



Thats about it! Please feel free to comment on any post and contact us at the usual email address should you have any questions: makeitmolecular@keele.ac.uk

Make-it-Molecular team