Team 1; Noor Khairin Nazifa bt. Khalid and Lee Chia Choon, testing the biodiesel collected from the vegetable oil sample given during the workshop

Team 7 ; Abdul Rahman bn. Ahmad Ridzuan and Ling Chen Jiet, attempting the second half of the workshop

Team 4; Nadia Shafina bt. Razali and Nuramalina bt. Samar with a lab technician, penning down their results from the experiment conducted during the workshop

Dr Steve Roser, a faculty member of the Chemistry Dept. at University of Bath, explaining to the students about the poster presentation for the International Science Competition 2011

Kuala Lumpur, 19 January 2011 - Students of the UCSI University A-Level Academy participated in a workshop to discover the science behind creating ‘green’ energy from natural resources. The Science Challenge workshop was organised by the university’s International University Placement Centre (IUPC) together with the University of Bath (Bath), United Kingdom (UK), its main aim was to ignite the students’ interest of some issues faced by society surrounding energy and the environment and how science may play a part in reducing these problems. 

The workshop is part of an international competition organised by the University of Bath to win a free place in Bath’s Science Summer School in July 2011. This will be an opportunity for them to experience some of the same curriculum enrichment programmes that Bath currently runs for UK schools, plus some additional events catered to meet the needs of international students. The two-week summer school will include subject classes in key areas of the science curriculum, study skills sessions to develop university level skills and a full programme of social events. Students will be accommodated on the university campus.

Separated into two sessions, the students were first asked to build a solar cell using dye from natural ingredients such as cherries, blueberries, coffee and tea. For the second half of the workshop, their assignment was to derive biodiesel from vegetable oil and test some of its properties. The first year students, competing in pairs of seven, were given approximately three hours to complete both tasks.

The International Science Challenge competition will be ongoing from now until 11th February 2011. Winners will be announced by 28th February 2011. 

For this final competition, students will use some of the knowledge they have gained in the workshop to prepare a poster presentation explaining how chemistry might be used to solve climate change issues. To enter, the students will need to produce a poster on the following topic: How can chemistry help fix climate change?

“We want the students to understand the relevance of this towards cutting-edge research and to represent the technology we currently have,” said Dr Gan Shermer, a teaching fellow in Synthetic Chemistry of the University of Bath. She added, “Bath has an Institute of Sustainable Energy and the Environment, and we get up to 7.5 million pounds in funding from the government to train research students and researchers for the next eight years.”

Ms Jo Powers, the international officer of the University of Bath then said, “UCSI University was approached as they have a close relationship with us and we currently have over 100 Malaysian students in Bath who are excelling in the fields of pharmaceutical and pure sciences.” 

UCSI University A-Level Academy has sent nine students to University of Bath to study Pharmacy in Sept 2009 and 2010. Out of which, one student obtained the Edexcel World Top Ten Award in Math in 2009 and another was awarded the Edexcel World Top Ten Award in Chemistry in 2010.
 
UCSI University is one amongst only four institutions in Malaysia participating in the workshop this year.