New Salford City Academy Students take on Shower Gel Challenge
~ PZ Cussons Help Academy Give New Year 7 Students a Day to Remember ~
On 5th September 2011, Salford City Academy's new Year 7 started their first day at secondary school with an exciting schedule full of product development challenges.
Head of Year 7, Rose Daniels, called on the expertise of PZ Cussons professionals to help deliver a timetable of teambuilding, problem-solving and creative tasks alongside scientific demonstrations and hands-on experiments.
PZ Cussons, a leading consumer products business in personal care, dispatched a team of scientists from their Agecroft site who were more than happy to assist.
Laura McCourt, Technologist at PZ Cussons said:
"All our volunteers found the day fun and it was great to inspire the next generation of scientists! It was really rewarding to see the pupils first day at "Big School" be so exciting. I wish my first day at secondary school would have been so great!"
The challenges included designing product colour and fragrances, choosing bottle shapes, and creating a brand, logo and advertising to market their products. More scientific exercises involving exciting, and sometimes explosive, demonstrations of shrinking crisp packets, making square bubbles, squeezing an egg into a bottle, and mixing reactive liquids and yeast, all taught students about Salt and Rheology, Plastics and Surfactants. Rose Daniels, Head of Year 7 at Salford City Academy said:
"It was a fast-paced day and the pupils were really enthusiastic; fully embracing all the activities.
"We always aim to give our new students a memorable first day at the Academy but it's just as important for them to build new friendships and gel with their mentors; all the exercises were geared towards that." The busy programme was designed to culminate in the manufacture of a shower gel in ‘production lines' set up in the Academy's sports hall.
Dressed in PZ Cussons lab coats and goggles, all students worked together to mix the shower gel, and then fill and label the bottles. All were delighted to be able to take a bottle home as a memento of their first day!
New Year 7 student Joshua Hampshire said: "It was a fantastic day. I learnt lots of new things and how to make shower gel, which I'd never done before. When I took it home my mum said it smelt gorgeous! It was a great way to make friends - I put my hand up for lots of answers so people kept coming to me for help."
Student Keeley Maggs-Baptiste said on the day:
"Today was fantastic; I can't wait for lessons tomorrow."