The award was given in recognition of their work ‘inspiring the next generation of chemists through activities that link classroom teaching to real world chemistry research.’

Based at UoB’s School of Chemistry, ChemBAM is a ‘growing online resource that uses current research themes to inspire future generations,’ providing free chemistry learning resources that ‘link the chemistry from the UK national curriculum to research and ‘real world’ chemistry from universities and industry.’ 

As well as providing free resources for pupils and teachers to supplement schoolwork from preschool to A-levels, ChemBAM has recently launched a Home Learning page to help parents keep younger children entertained following the closures of schools and nurseries. 

An example of one of ChemBAM’s at-home experiments is Crunchie Bar Batteries – using chocolate bars to understand the basic components of a lithium-ion battery. This experiment was developed by PhD students Beatrice Browning and Rosie Madge, and has simplified and detailed versions to appeal to students from Key Stage 1 to Key Stage 3, and links  to developments in lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) taking place at UoB and the Faraday Institution in Didcot.

As well as providing assistance online, in 2017 ChemBAM also launched their ChemBOX project, a program that provided 10 Birmingham schools with the resources needed to run 6 ChemBAM experiments. 

Measures like POLAR (Participation Of Local AReas) determine how many children are going on to higher education. In Birmingham and the Black Country, many areas are ranked in POLAR4 quintile 1, indicating the lowest possible level of young people accessing higher education.  

Dr Zoe Schnepp, Senior Lecturer in the School of Chemistry at UoB, and a founder of ChemBAM, says that educational inequality is what motivates ChemBAM’s work: ‘it’s a small contribution to a large problem but it’s something we’re really proud of and it’s easy to be motivated when you are doing something you believe in.’ 

ChemBAM has chosen to focus on outreach in schools with high pupil premium – extra funding from the government to help the schools to improve the attainment of disadvantaged pupils. Furthermore, ChemBAM is also working on improving accessibility in education, and are currently in the process of developing activities for students with visual impairment. 

Speaking to Redbrick, Dr Schnepp observed that ‘science outreach […] [is] often more easily accessed by rich schools, [who] can afford the entry fee to events, a coach to take kids to an event, the teacher cover for kids back in the school.’ ChemBAM has raised around £50,000 towards supporting disadvantaged schools, with outreach ranging from supplying the schools with lab equipment to bringing students on to UoB’s campus to experience the university’s facilities. 

Schnepp told Redbrick that ChemBAM’s success is ‘absolutely a team effort.’ With contributions from lecturers, researchers, postgraduates, and undergraduates, the team acknowledges the RSC award as ‘a testament to the hard work and dedication of all the people who have volunteered for ChemBAM.’ The team ‘would like to thank all of the staff, researchers and students who have volunteered their time on this project […] [and] all the people and organisations that have funded our work.’ Thanks to the publicity resulting from the RSC’s award, ChemBAM hopes that ‘this award will help us to build the website and resources even further.’

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