Students Visit RPTU as Part of the 56th International Chemistry Olympiad
From February 16 to 19, 13 high school students from Rhineland-Palatinate and the Saarland had the opportunity to gain insights into everyday life in a chemistry lab, as well as into academic studies and research at the Department of Chemistry at RPTU. Some of the participants are already in the third selection round of the Chemistry Olympiad and were excited to put the knowledge they’ve gained into practice. The experimental focus was on providing insight into as many techniques as possible from organic chemistry, analytical chemistry, and biochemistry.
Upon their arrival at the community center in Trippstadt on Sunday, the participants were able to get a first impression of RPTU’s Kaiserslautern campus and the upcoming lab days through an introductory session and a brief introductory lecture.
After the mandatory safety briefing, they headed straight to the lab on Monday, where the students were able to demonstrate their skills through an organic synthesis experiment. Working in teams of two, they learned a variety of basic laboratory techniques—from independently setting up complex apparatus to performing the first synthesis step and purifying the resulting crude product. The day was supervised by the Chemistry Education team led by Professor Gabriele Hornung.
On the second day, the students spent the morning conducting a biochemistry experiment focused on enzyme kinetics and photometry as a measurement method. In particular, the natural occurrence of the enzyme in fresh button mushrooms helped establish a clear connection to the students’ everyday lives. After successfully extracting the enzyme from the mushrooms, the students examined the enzyme’s activity. This experiment is a standard part of the lab courses for students in biochemistry and biology.
The students were supervised by the teams from the Department of Chemistry Education and Professor Antonio Pierik’s research group. In the afternoon, in addition to the final analysis of the synthesis product from the previous day, the students took a short tour of the LASE (Laboratory for Advanced Spin Engineering) research building—thanks to the support of Dr. Marc Prosenc from the Department of Physical Chemistry.
Dr. Uwe Bergsträßer (Organic Chemistry, Professor Jens Hartung’s research group) introduced the students to analytical spectroscopic methods (IR and NMR), thereby setting the stage for the discussion session with the professors scheduled for late afternoon. Covering as broad a range of topics as possible, the students had the opportunity to ask Professor Sabine Becker (Inorganic Chemistry), Professor Georg Manolikakes (Organic Chemistry), and Assistant Professor Johann-Nikolaus Seibert (Chemistry Education) anything they wanted to know—ranging from research and scientific careers to how to successfully complete a degree in chemistry. The participants learned how the three researchers came to chemistry and why they still enjoy conducting experiments in the lab whenever time permits.
The state seminar for the Chemistry Olympiad has been organized and hosted for many years at RPTU by the Department of Chemistry Education, with support from the relevant scientific departments. The competition receives financial support from the German Chemical Industry Association and, this year, personnel support through the “Open Digitalization Alliance Palatinate” project.