Getting hands-on with science and uni life at the University of Otago.

Kia ora everyone! 

In January this year, I had the privilege of attending Hands-On At Otago 2025 at Te Rangihiroa College in Dunedin, where I experienced uni life, made new friends, explored the campus, and of course, learnt all about the things you can achieve and do "Hands-On"! This unique experience happened over the course of a week, where we would spend half of the day on our main project that we chose prior, and the other half of the day learning about other studies that may or may not have tickled our fancy (hehe). 

For my main project, I was fortunate enough to get my first choice, which was Organic Chemistry (yippie!). Over the week our days would be mainly spent in the very fancy Otago Department of Chemistry lab on campus, where you would find uni students studying Chemistry for their degree. During the week, we identified and extracted the molecule caffeine from a variety of drinks including energy drinks, coffee, and green tea. We used a couple of high-tech machines to solidify and test our caffeine to see if what we extracted was caffeine. 

Now, that was only finding the already existing molecule in items, but what about creating caffeine yourself? That was our next stage of the project, making the molecule caffeine in the lab ourselves! We first started with another molecule that was very similar to caffeine, which was theophylline, used to treat common lung diseases. Theophylline is missing a hydrogen-nitrogen bond to make caffeine, so we mixed the theophylline with sulfur oxide, another molecule that is very good at giving other molecules bonds (such as the hydrogen-nitrogen bond we needed!). This was a rigorous process of mixing and filtering. Once this was completed, we needed to prove that what we had made was caffeine, but this included more in-depth tests. Overall, we used three tests to see different characteristics and reactions that proved our caffeine was caffeine (which it was, whew!).

During the last days of Hands-On Otago, we scraped and cut up the aluminium cans that we used the first day and turned them into aluminium crystals! We were able to take these home to have as a little souvenir! We were also able to witness some very cool chemistry magic such as changing the colour of fire, lighting ourselves on fire, eating chips covered in liquid nitrogen, and my favourite, using liquid nitrogen to explode a barrel full of stuffed teddies! Apart from a report we later presented, this was the conclusion of our Hands-On at Otago project!

During the week, we also got to participate in many activities which were both fun and a great opportunity to meet new people! This included quiz night, active afternoon, the tasters that were provided, and an epic dance battle between the college floors at the college party night! 

Overall, Hands-On at Otago is definitely an opportunity I would recommend to anyone who wants to explore their options beyond high school, as well as have an amazing time meeting new and like-minded people. I still keep in touch with the people I meet at Hands-On! Being able to spend a week right on campus just made the idea of attending university a little more normal and less daunting. 

Before I finish, I would like to thank Cathy Shearer for enlightening me about Hands-On at Otago, the Rotary Club of Waimate for supporting me financially with this experience, and Chemistry staff: Dave, Andrew, and Serena; for being patient with me during my time with them. That is all from me! If you have any questions and want to learn a little bit more about what Hands-On at Otago is like, feel free to come and have a chat!

Ngā mihi,

Enya O’Donnell