UCL Chemistry team wins award for students’ home science kits

Picture illustrating the Lab_14 collaboration - A team of lecturers, lab technicians and students at UCL who worked together in developing and sending a new kind of chemistry set to students across the world during lockdown last year have been recognised with an award from the Royal Society of Chemistry. The team, whose project, called the Lab_14 Collaboration, represents a new way of thinking about undergraduate labs, have been awarded the Royal Society of Chemistry's Horizon Prize for Education, which celebrates outstanding contributions to chemical science education. Dr Liz Munday (UCL Chemistry), who helped look after the day-to-day running of the initiative, said: "Last year lessons were disrupted because of the pandemic. Our students couldn't come in and make use of the university labs, so a group of us started an initiative which would help complete practical lessons from home. "When lockdown struck, we didn't want our students to be sat at home feeling disengaged or missing out on practical learning. The aim was for classmates to feel connected as a class, by carrying out the same experiments together despite being far apart. "We purchased various pieces of chemistry equipment and put together kits which would allow our students to do measurements and different experiments at home.