STUDENTS at Ilkley Grammar School will be joining leading scientists at a week-long festival in London in July to celebrate the cutting edge of UK science with their own exhibit - ‘Making Music with Chemistry’.

The Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition has a packed programme of thought-provoking talks, demonstrations and entertaining performances of hands-on science and technology, with something for all ages. The event showcases 22 exhibitions, with one exhibit every year reserved for the best school partnership project selected from schools who have been awarded a Royal Society Partnership Grant.

Ilkley Grammar School were awarded the grant in 2017 where students have since carried out their project under the guidance of their chemistry teacher Dr Neil Garrido and University of Bradford senior lecturers Dr William Martin and Dr Nicolas Barry. The innovative project involves using classic chemical reactions to make musical scales, before then being transformed into original pieces of music.

Dr Nicolas Barry, Senior Lecturer in Inorganic Chemistry and Royal Society University Research Fellow, said: “This project demonstrates how chemistry can be fun and exciting, while providing a novel method to understand science. By interpreting data in a more sensorial way we can learn about how nature works at the molecular level and help chemistry appeal to a non-specialist audience.”

Dr Neil Garrido, IGS chemistry teacher said: “It’s been a wonderful opportunity for my students to be involved in such an ambitious project, working alongside university academics carrying out advanced chemical reactions has allowed them to take their learning way beyond what is normally taught at school. The fact they have been able to use the state-of-the-art facilities at the university has also really helped embed the learning we do in the classroom and make what we teach more relevant. It has given them a glimpse into the world of academic research and hopefully will inspire the next generation of scientists”