Kitchen chemistry

The Kitchen Chemistry course is designed to explore some of the principles of chemistry. You will be encouraged to carry out your own experiments using materials that are often found in the home. If not they can be obtained from most supermarkets, pharmacies or hardware stores. Along the way you will use fruit tea to identify acids and alkalis, investigate chemicals that speed up reactions and experiment with electron transfer reactions. This should give you a feel for the world of molecules and an idea of some reactions. It should also introduce some methods to separate chemicals, to find out what chemicals are present in a mixture and ways to change chemicals from one form to another. It is aimed at a wide range of ages. Children under 13 years of age are not able to sign up for the course, but an adult is welcome to sign up on their behalf and adult supervision is advised for young children doing the experiments. You can use the hashtag #FLkitchenchem to join and contribute to social media conversations about this course.

• Stephen Ashworth