Kitchen Chemistry in Brunei

The reason this trip seems a long time ago, is that it was! The Kitchen Chemist returned from Brunei at the end of January, having spent nearly two weeks there with the Brunei Primary Stem project. This is a British Council funded HE Partnership as part of their Going Global Partnership scheme.

I was able to deliver workshops that combined demonstrations from Kitchen Chemistry shows, physics shows and other science busking to educators at a variety of levels. Of course there was a day of Kitchen Chemistry shows along the way!

The day of shows took place in the spectacular Pro Chancellor Arts Centre. We put on four shows to different audiences during the day. Unfortunately, administrative issues meant that we were not straining the capacity of the Arts Centre. The audiences appeared to enjoy it, at least measured by the number of photo requests after the shows!

The idea of the workshops was mainly to give primary educators some resources and confidence in doing demonstrations and practical activities in the classroom. In the end we had some very interactive workshops with educators at both primary and secondary levels, and science communicators from the Seria Energy lab, the national science centre.

Another part of the project was to work with the trainee teachers. We ran workshops for these and a competition too.

The project also had me representing the UEA at the signing of a Memorandum of understanding, and taking part in meetings with the Dean of the Faculty of Science, the Director of Research for Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD), and colleagues from the Science Faculty. In those meetings I was merely, in the words of the Oscars, a supporting actor.

All work and no play makes the Kitchen Chemist a dull boy. We also made time to visit the local markets, sample local food and were taken sightseeing by the very hospitable MTeach students. I can’t wait to go back. There are plans to take Kitchen Chemistry out to the rural schools – all we need to find now is funding!