The CSRP Education Program collaborated with Murdoch University Extractive Metallurgy staff to offer three laboratory sessions to teachers at the annual Future Science Day sponsored by the Science Teacher Association of Western Australia (STAWA). The event was held on Friday 24 November on the Murdoch University campus with several hundred science teachers in attendance.
The even marked the first trail of a brand new professional development activity entitled “Alumina Production from Bauxite by the Bayer Process”.
The Bayer process is a crucial stage in the extraction of aluminium from bauxite and is of enormous importance to WA in particular, but Australia in general, since the country produces 35% of the world’s alumina. The conditions used in the Bayer process are too hazardous to operate in school laboratories, thus preventing teachers and students from having direct observation of this process. Nick Welham and Ken Seymour of Murdoch University have developed what they call Fauxite© or fake bauxite. This allows for a simple laboratory simulation which mimics the whole process at room temperature. The minimally hazardous materials used make this experiment appropriate for use in classes as part of the curriculum.
The laboratory work was preceded with a short Power Point talk by Dr Welham that looked into the history of both the Hall-Heroult and Bayer processes. Participants then worked through the simulated steps of the Bayer process to recover “faux alumina”. The potential uses of the experiment in the WA curriculum were also discussed. Attendees received a set of notes describing the industrial Bayer process and a detailed description of the experiment so it can be used in the classroom.
Two other laboratory sessions were also offered by Nick Welham , Ken Seymour and Dan Churach at Future Science 2006. They were: