Background: The Thunberg Effect
In the autumn of 2019, phone calls came through to CLEAPSS from technicians and teachers asking how their schools should respond to students' concerns about the use of plastic materials and chemicals in school science. The initiator of this sudden interest was attributed to the arrival of Greta Thunberg in the UK.
CLEAPSS and SSERC in Scotland are organisations funded by local authorities and individual schools to monitor the legislation pertaining to the safety of students (from the age of 5 to 18), teachers and technicians when carrying out science or design and technology activities. I joined CLEAPSS as the senior sciences chemistry advisor in 1991.
CLEAPSS receives over 4,000 helpline enquires a year. Those relating to chemistry are mostly about the storage and disposal of chemicals or why experiments have not worked as described in a book or exam. The questions raised by students were different, as there was a political angle the inquiry. CLEAPSS has dealings with governmental departments such as the HSE and Departments for Education and Environment, so we thought the response might be better coming from my own website but edited by CLEAPSS.
Science in Society: An ASE triumph, sadly forgotten