Nuffield Advanced Chemistry: Special Studies

Towards the end of the Nuffield Advanced Chemistry course students undertook one Special Study, during which they could apply the principles studied in the basic course to new contexts. Five special studies were developed dealing with biochemistry, chemical engineering, food science, ion exchange, and metallurgy.

Purposes
The main purpose of the Special Studies was to enable students to see something of the scope of a related subject, and to appreciate its dependence upon chemical principles. In doing this, students were able to revise several of the basic concepts of chemistry. The studies therefore also provided a valuable means of recapitulation, not by going over the old ground again but by revising the ideas in a new context. The studies were also designed to show something of the applications of the subjects, and of their social and economic effects.

Scope
Like the rest of the course, the Special Studies were based on experimental work. There was one text for each study containing chapters on the necessary underlying ideas and knowledge, the details of the experimental work, and applications in industry, agriculture, and medicine.

Each student was expected to study the introductory course of the chosen Special Study. This course lasted about four weeks and provided a survey of the scope of the subject, based on experimental work and on reading the text. In addition, in the first edition, there was an extension course consisting of longer experiments or genuine investigations, from which a choice lasting about two weeks could be made. Only the Introductory Courses was examined at A-level.