During the first lockdown in March 2020, Mrs Everest (Senior Science Technician) was involved in a Citizen Science chemistry project on Twitter. This project was looking at flowers as pH indicators using household chemicals such as vinegar, tap water, bicarbonate of soda to test them out. Flower petals contain anthocyanin pigments and these change colour at different pH. This project grew in popularity with over 28 people logging results using the #GardenIndicators hashtag. Over 88 different plant species were tested and at least 176 different experiments were recorded. Mrs Everest brought together all of the results and made a spreadsheet showing the colour of each of the chemical changes seen.

She recently entered the Royal Society of Chemistry Twitter Poster Conference with a poster describing the project. This conference is held entirely online with over 900 posters presented from 62 countries. It covers all branches of chemistry and her poster won first prize in the Primary and Secondary Education category.

View the prizewinning poster HERE.

You can read more about the entries HERE.

Disclaimer:  Please take care when picking flowers, some plants and flowers in the garden are poisonous or cause irritation. Also, please do not pick wild flowers as some plants are protected species.