ChemBOX Alumni was a project that was set up in 2019 with support from the Alumni Impact Fund at the University of Birmingham. The aim of this project was to send our students back to their old high schools and sixth forms to deliver outreach activities related to research taking place at the School of Chemistry.

Students were given training in two of our ChemBAM experiments and got to meet researchers who worked on the original projects. They were also given a session of pedagogy and classroom management by Dr Daniel Cottle from the School of Education.

After taking part in the training students contacted their old schools and visited to run sessions with current pupils. Schools were also gifted £100 worth of equipment such as voltmeters or stirrer plates and consumables so they could repeat the experiments after the students visit. In 2019 over 200 pupils were reached. Feedback from teachers was overwhelmingly positive commenting on the powerful role models that our students were and how well they inspired their peers with their activities.

(The student) was an excellent, enthusiastic presenter who inspired our students and was really approachable and answered many student questions about University – Chemistry Teacher