Diary of Branch and Group Activities

For further information concerning these and other events, please consult the contacts mentioned or the specialist Group's page. Don't overlook the National Web Site www.raci.org.au for activities elsewhere.
Note that this area is updated frequently. Check regularly for the latest information.

If you have suggestions for interesting speakers, topics or other activities, then contact your branch president A/Prof. Stewart Walker, or the chair of the appropriate Specialist Group. Your committee welcomes your views.

2008 EVENTS

Branch Committee Meetings-

Branch Meetings-

The Chemical Murder Mystery, 2008

Dear RACI members
The Chemical Murder Mystery, 2008 (CMM) is on again. This is a call for members of RACI-SA to assist as demonstrators to the year 10 students at an experimental 'station' or a shepherd to take the students round the stations (although most schools will have one or more teachers with them - so need to split and therefore extra bodies are useful.

Demonstrators are essential to the running of the CMM with 15 demonstrators required on each of the 5 days of the program (13 demonstrators as definites and 2 acting as substitutes).

Each day requires only 2 hours participation (including lunch time) with each demonstrator receiving
1) a guide to the station (including suggested things to say and step-by-step instructions)
2) the latest Murder Mystery T-Shirt - great colours - new logo
3) the traditional pizza lunch and
4) the opportunity to support an activity that aims to encourage year 10 students to continue to study science in high schools by giving them a fun chemistry experience.

The labs sessions run from 11:20 until 1:00pm and then lunch is provided from 1-1:30pm.
On the following days: June, Wednesday 25th, Thursday 26th, Friday 27th, Monday 30th June and Tuesday July 1st.
You are welcome to come for the pre-lab lecture (10:00 am in South 3, Flinders University), the Crime Scene evidence collection (10:40-11:00) and round up of suspects (11:11:20) and stay for the Court presentation and revealing of who dunnit (1:30 - 2:10pm).

If you’ve volunteered in the past we need your expertise. If you haven’t volunteered before, you’re very, very welcome to do so this year.

You need to know what it is you’re volunteering for! A roster of the demonstrators will be put together this week so that everyone knows what they are down for and so there are no surprises. Demonstrators will each receive a booklet outlining each of the 13 stations that make up the forensic chemistry investigation part of the event. This will give ample time to get thoughts together in advance. Each of the demonstrations are short (10 minutes) and non-technical (aimed at year 10 students).

There will also be an information session for volunteers at *11.00am Thursday 19th June* in the second year chemistry teaching labs where we will run through all the stations. If you can’t make it at this time then another time might be arranged.

What to do if you’re interested?

Contact Brent Banham (Science Communications,brent.banham@flinders.edu.au> or Associate Professor Stewart Walker stewart.walker@flinders.edu.au> .

By way of reminder, the stations that need staffing cover the following topics:

Polarimetry (no rotation from nicotine so synthetic) Atomic Absorption Analysis (Lead in blood and wine - but normal levels) Mass Spectrometry (presence of Nicotine in blood and nicotine and vanillin in wine in bottle) Soil Testing (metal content can differentiate between soils in driveway, from shoe and from car) Microscopy Analysis (compare fibres found at scene of crime with cloths worn by suspects and victim) Fingerprint (compare fingerprint from glass with known example -- check for fingerprints on paper then students take their own fingerprints) Paper Chromatography (comparison of ink from pens from the suspects and from an envelope) DNA Analysis (Compare DNA from suspects and victim from wine glass, wine bottle, steering wheel etc) Toxicology (presumptive tests for drugs in blood and tissue of victim and from 'white powder') Spectro (Comparison of inks from pens and printers by microspectrophotometry) Infrared Analysis (Is there CO in the victims lungs?) Video Spectral Comparator and Polylit (need sexier name for this - reveal 'destroyed' text - identify forged documents and currency.) Fluorescence (extract and compare fluorescence from handprint on envelope)

We are suggesting that this year you could stat by introducing yourself so the student know you are a real person and what you do:-

For example Hello I'm ...(Freda Bloggs)..... and I'm a ....(PhD student/Honours student/ stafff member).... at ......(University/CSIRO this company).... where I am ....(stuying Chemistry/working on improving the early detection of cancer/analysing water sample to ensure our water is safe to drink etc)..... I will be assisting you to analyse the ...(evidence)....by ....(technique). etc

In this way the year 10 students get exposed to a range of RACI members from a range of different places and can see where chemistry may lead them (disturbing thought!).

This year around 750 students and 27 shools are booked into the CMM with another 24 schools on the waiting list.

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Title:Desalination: Global Practices & South Australia

About the event: Many people think that reverse osmosis desalination is very expensive and energy intensive. This is true to some degree, but the decreasing availability and quality of existing freshwater sources, has resulted in exponential growth of ‘new water’ generating processes, including desalination, which in many cases is highly cost-competitive with traditional water supply options.
In October and November 2007, Con Pelekani, embarked on a world-wide desalination technology study, focussing predominantly on seawater desalination and water re-use, to find out what’s really happening, with respect to facilities design, construction, operation, cost and research & development. The trip included participation at the World Congress on Desalination & Water Re-use, hosted by the International Desalination Association www.idadesal.org, in the Canary Islands, off the west coast of North Africa.
In this presentation, Con will provide a summary of the highlights of the trip, including key learnings from the conference and site visits to Singapore, Paris, Spain, Israel, Trinidad (West Indies) and California.

Security: N/A
Special requirements: N/A

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