Close
UCL Chemistry and Physics Summer School
Experience life as a UCL student by staying over in student accommodation, in the heart of London, while taking part in general university sessions where you will learn about student finance and its repayments, how to write and structure the best personal statement, find out about UCL and what it can offer you and participate in fun social activities.
- You must able be on track to reach your subject of choice’s entry requirements in order to be eligible for a place.
- Chemistry
- Physics & Astronomy
Chemistry:
Aromatic compounds are a wide range of organic chemicals, used in things such as therapeutic drugs, dyes, flavourings and perfumes. The simplest of these aromatic compound is benzene. In this session, you'll be carry out an important substitution reaction called nitration on the aromatic compound, methyl benzoate (a derivative of benzene, that's often used to give fizzy drinks their characteristic odour and flavour).
You'll carry out the nitration using a mixture of nitric acid and sulfuric acid and then purify the end product by recrystallisation. We'll then use a range of spectroscopic techniques in the UCL laboratories to determine the structure of the nitro compound we've created.
Physics & Astronomy:
Your Summer School led by the UCL Department of Physics and Astronomy will this year focus on planets beyond our solar system, the Exoplanets. Exoplanet discoveries have accelerated over the last few years with powerful new telescopes able to detect ever smaller bodies and even begin analysing details about what these distant worlds may be like. Combining physics knowledge from across the spectrum and applying them to outer space is what astrophysics is all about. You'll develop problem solving skills that will enhance your understanding of physics in the workplace as well as high level research. You'll need to bring a curiosity and be able to work in new ways to solve physics using new skills you will learn along the way; build new online computational tools and coding skills, develop an understating of spectroscopy in our search for ET, as well as traditional lectures and group work. This will leave you with a greater understanding of what it is like to study for a Physics Degree at a world leading institution.
Participants for this programme will be selected using the shortlisting criteria found on the Who we work with webpage to prioritise young people from the least represented groups at UCL. You will be awarded points based on the number of criteria that you meet. Applicants with the highest number of points will be offered the places available on the programme.