Record Breakers

Pic: St Dallans.com

The world record for the largest science lesson was smashed in Belfast as more than 1,300 schoolchildren took part in a colossal chemistry class.

St Dallan's Primary 7 pupils together with Year 7 and 8 pupils from primary and secondary schools across Northern Ireland packed into the Odyssey Arena to participate in a mass chromatography experiment. This was one overcrowded classroom no-one was complaining about, as the existing Guinness World Record of 982 was not only broken but obliterated. Confirmation that 1,339 pupils had officially participated in the lesson brought cheers as loud as those that usually reverberate around the arena when the Belfast Giants ice hockey team is playing. Pravin Patel, the Guinness World Record adjudicator, was suitably impressed by the feat, which was staged as part of the inaugural Northern Ireland Science Festival. "It's an absolutely fantastic record," he said after announcing the outcome.