Chemistry Home - Wellington College Intranet

		2011 - International Year of Chemistry
Latest Chemistry News Sixth form Chemistry? Exam dates for January exam season HELP! Do you need some extra help with Chemistry How to get to a top University for Chemistry Deadlines for Fifth form MYP 2011-12 Wellington's Akash Jain wins Top Chemistry prize Another record breaking year for Chemistry exam results Chemistry - the University 'Facilitator'
			External Links for the courses we study
			MYP Chemistry
			IGCSE Chemistry
			IB Diploma Chemistry
			AQA A level Chemistry
The programme of study at Wellington College			Useful links
Third Form	MYP Chemistry		Periodic Table A level Specification IB Specification MYP Assessment criteria IGCSE specification Bestchoice
Fourth Form	MYP Chemistry or IGCSE Chemistry
Fifth Form	MYP Chemistry or IGCSE Chemistry
Lower Sixth	IB Diploma Chemistry or AQA AS Chemistry
Upper Sixth	IB Diploma Chemistry or AQA A2 Chemistry

Thought for the day: "Science is built up of facts, as a house is built of stones; but an accumulation of facts is no more a science than a heap of stones is a house." - Henri Poincaré

BBC News - Science & Environment

Striking galaxy image from Hubble
The Hubble space telescope captures an image of a "barred spiral" galaxy that could help us better understand our own Milky Way.
Largest optical telescope created
Astronomers at the Paranal observatory combine four telescope to create the world's largest virtual device with a 130m-mirror.
Prince optimistic for fisheries
Prince Charles says there is a reason to be optimistic about the state of the world's oceans, but it is "critically urgent" to tackle overfishing.

Top News Stories from the RSC

NERC asks institutes to weed out poor grants
Research council plans to improve grant success rates by getting universities to screen out uncompetitive proposals
Whistleblowers accuse FDA of spying, persecution
US FDA employees sue agency, saying they were subjected to secret surveillance for expressing safety concerns about medical devices
Toxic mushroom behind Chinese deaths unmasked
The killer chemicals that have claimed hundreds of lives in China have been identified in a new species of fungi

Wellington's Akash Jain wins top Chemistry prize

Every year the Society for Chemistry Industry runs a competition to highlight the best sixth form Chemists in the region. The competition is fierce with the very best pupils put forward to be judged against each other. Our nominee this year was assessed on his performance in his AS exams, his attitude to Chemistry, particularly outside the classroom and on his Oxbridge essay that he wrote over the summer in the field of General Anaesthetics. For the first year ever, Wellington’s Akash Jain was award the top County award as the best sixth form Chemist in Berkshire and Buckinghamshire. This is a tremendous achievement - well done.

Another record breaking year for Chemistry exam results

The Chemistry department scored a record 84% A*-A at A2 this year which was the best ever. The results at AS were equally impressive, with 82% A+B. IB and GCSE results also increased and with so many more pupils sitting the triple award Chemistry (111) than last year (71) the pupils should be very proud of their performances. Well done to all.

Chemistry Olympiad Success

Well done to all those who took part in the Royal Society of Chemistry's 2011 Olympiad. Every year we enter our top U6th students into this very tough competition, which goes well beyond A level or IB syllabuses. This year only 7% of all participants were awarded gold, 23% silver and 18% bronze. We have a record number of awards this year, equalling those of 2006, and our first Gold since 2007.

GOLD	Toba Fatimilehin (M)
SILVER	Ryan Wield (Hg) Ollie Ralph (Bd) Lizzie Robinson (O)
BRONZE	Tom Roberts (Bd) Leke Akerele (M) Colman Chiu (Bl)

More information about this year's competition can be found on the RSC Website here.

Chemistry - the University 'facilitator'

The Russell group of Universities has just published a list of 'facilitating' subjects that give students the most options. Here's what they said:

What subjects can give me the most options?
Many courses at university level build on knowledge which you will gain while still at school. Where this is the case, universities need to make sure that all the students they admit have prepared themselves in the best way to cope with their chosen course. For this reason, some university courses may require you to have studied a specific subject prior to entry, others may not. However, there are some subjects that are required more often than others. These subjects are sometimes referred to as facilitating subjects.

Subjects that can be viewed as ‘facilitating’ subjects are:
• Mathematics and Further Maths
• English
• Physics
• Biology
• Chemistry
• Geography
• History
• Languages (Classical and Modern)

Exam Dates for January Exam Season

AS Unit 1 Friday 13th Jan PM
AS Unit 2 Thursday 19th Jan PM
A2 Unit 4 Thursday 26th Jan PM

Good Luck all!

Help!

Are you finding Chemistry tough? Would you like some extra help?

Rather than running specific workshops (which often clash), we will try to make sure that there is always a member of staff in the department to help you, until 6 (often 7) each evening. Please do knock on lab doors and ask for help, even if it is not your teacher. Sometimes it is especially helpful to have someone else explain it in a different way.
Other ways you can help yourself:
6th formers in your house - it's good for them aswell to explain things to you!
Duty staff in your house - are any of them scientists?
Look things up in your textbook or the internet - chemguide.co.uk is very well written for sixth form.
Ask your friends to talk you through it
Email your teacher