The week-long British Council ‘Science in Schools’ event, held in Marseille, France, provided aspiration-raising laboratory-based workshops to over 370 French students giving them an insight into student life at university.

Led by outreach chemist Dr Linda Sellou and assisted by postgraduate students Mohamed Benama and Katie Shaw from the University of Bristol’s ChemLabS, the event is the second time this year that the group has worked with the British Council in France.

Dr Sellou said: “The event has had a double impact on these students not only by helping to inspire and encourage them to continue onto higher education but also demonstrating that science can be fun and interesting. Many of the students had never been to the UK so it was a great opportunity for us to combine elements of both science and culture.”

The event, involving ten secondary schools for students aged  between 13-to-15, ran from 23 to 27 March 2009 and was held at the ‘Maison des Sciences’ (Science and Cultural Centre of the University of Provence) and was supported by the Faculty of Sciences of St Jérôme-Marseille.

Bristol ChemLabS is the project name for the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE)-sponsored Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) in practical Chemistry. Bristol ChemLabS stands for 'Bristol Chemical Laboratory Sciences'. For more information visit the website.