Over the past few months, we’ve been checking the health and safety guidance in some of our most popular demonstrations and class practicals is up to date, and we’ve now published those changes.

The procedures in our Classic chemistry experiments, Classic chemistry demonstrations and Chemistry for non-specialists books are known and loved by many chemistry teachers, and many have been freely available on Learn Chemistry since 2012. We’ve collaborated with SSERC (Scottish schools education research centre) to check these procedures and guidance notes, and have made improvements to match the latest best practice and policy. We’ve now published updated versions of these practicals on Learn Chemistry. Use them with the confidence that you are accessing the most up-to-date versions of these classic procedures.

We’ve removed some supporting videos, and three experiments outright, because it wasn’t possible to update them sufficiently in their current form. For example, the Screaming jelly baby has taken a temporary holiday from Learn Chemistry. However, we will publish alternatives or updates to these in the coming months.

Our health and safety work is on-going. We recently updated our popular Nuffield practical chemistry collection, and we’ll be checking more of our practicals over the coming months. This year, we’re reviewing and editing 200 practical resources. If you want to know more about our work to maintain over 2,000 teaching and learning resources, email learn-chemistry@rsc.org.

Explore our refreshed Classic chemistry experiments, Classic chemistry demonstrations and Chemistry for non-specialists collections.