Battle of the Indigestion Products won Kirsty Wills 1st place in the Material World section (yr 12 - 13).
Kirsty is 16 year old from Marlborough Girls' College, who was interested in medicines and health and chose this topic for her sixth form chemistry project. Her aim was to investigate which indigestion product neutralised the greatest amount of stomach acid (HCl).
After some initial research into the chemistry of indigestion remedies and the stomachs' acidity, Kirsty designed a fair test titration method to determine the neutralising effects of the medicines.
She made up standard solutions selected the correct indicator then carried out numerous titration's to check her results were consistent.
Kirsty discovered just how many variables had to be controlled in such an investigation and that Quickeze performed the best as a neutralising agent in her experiments.
Kirsty did all the work herself with a little help from the science technician in getting ready for the practical work.
The helpful Kirsty offers is "think of a topic you will enjoy doing".