Spectacular Solar Scientists!

120 primary pupils each day are investigating solar cells in our workshop at this year's Milton Keynes "Chemistry at Work" event.
Everyone has the chance to make and investigate a solar-powered fan. The cold weather has deterred no one from being outside to find out how to make their own fans turn as fast as possible. They are amazed to see their fans work even under cloud cover!
The most popular activity is when they link up more than one cell to see just how much faster they can make their fans whizz round. 

Find out more about this annual event at ChemistryinAction.com.

Busy Bright Sparks!

Sphere Science provided practical activities at the Nugen’s Bright Sparks energy event on 29 September in Cumbria.

About 120 Y11 students from local schools took part in our practical challenges.

 We ran six quick challenges:

·       design a wind turbine power

·       build the tallest straw towers

·       make the slowest marble run

·       investigate solar energy

·       make and investigate a balloon-powered car

·       make and investigate elastic band rollers

The winning tower held the marble at a height of 1.86m, the slowest marble down the plastic board took 15.96 seconds and one group lifted 75 weights (nearly 400g) with their model wind turbine.

Balloon buggies and rollers were taken home by enthusiastic visitors to try again and modify later.

Loyalty Scheme launched!

New from September 2016!!!

If you booked a full-price Workshop Day during the last academic year you are entitled to a discount of 10% on a Workshop Day this year.

If you booked a SPLATS project during the last academic year you are entitled to a discount of 10% on a SPLATS project this year.

If you recommend us to another school which goes on to confirm a booking you will be entitled to a discounted workshop day during the year.

Scientific Swedes!

Over the past fortnight, we have been part of a residential experience for Swedish primary children from Linkoping. Over six days, at Cobham Hall in Kent, twelve different classes all designed and investigated balloon-powered buggies, experimented with colour-mixing to make multi-coloured candles, created fair tests to discover which fruits contained the most Vitamin C, and explored the science of photovoltaic cells.
They all had a great time and proved to be very good at ever hands-on activity. All the children were able to improve their English skills while developing their abilities in thinking and working scientifically.
The legacy of Arrhenius, Linnaeus and Nobel is in good hands!

Big Bang in Aylesbury

Sarah attended the Buckinghamshire Big Bang event this week. At her stand, visitors had chance to make jumping beans or hoopsters. Pupils were constantly at the stand having fun finding out about these items. Some of their comments:
‘That surface makes my jumping bean slide not jump'
'It feels like it’s alive….’
‘The hoopster with misaligned hoops spun as it flew.’

It's Showtime!!!

Sarah visited a London school this week to deliver our popular 'Street Science' show as a year assembly.  A variety of 'tricks' enabled her to engage the children in discussing how the tricks worked and the science behind them.
One teacher said, "The children have really been enthused by the workshops! Several children in my class came in with rotating straws and with very in depth explanations of how some of the tricks worked."

Swedish Scientists at work!

We were delighted to be involved with a residential experience for Swedish primary children at Cobham Hall in Kent. Over three days, six different classes all designed and investigated balloon-powered buggies, experimented with colour-mixing to make multi-coloured candles, created fair tests to discover which fruits contained the most Vitamin C, and explored the science of photovoltaic cells.
They all had a great time and proved to be very good at all the activities.
The legacy of Angstrom, Celsius and Linnaeus is in safe hands! 

Brilliant Buggies!

Last week, Sarah ran a series of our ever-popular "Buggies" workshops at the National Waterways Museum in Ellesmere Port. About 750 children all had chance to design, build, investigate and keep their own balloon-powered buggy.
They all had a great time!
"I liked it that I could make something that worked."
"It was amazingly brilliant!"

Royal Holloway University

On Saturday, despite the traditional British weather of sleet, we had a great time at this science festival. Children and parents designed their own investigations at our stand - for example, finding out about jumping beans. We were busy non-stop!

Fun In Brighton!

Last Friday we had a great day in Brighton providing a series of hands-on activities for families who visited us at the Synergy Centre. And nearly 300 did so.
Everyone had chance to make and investigate: a jumping bean, a hoopster, a chatterbox (see photo), a rain stick and a multi-coloured candle. There was so much to see and do. One family was amazed to learn that not all scientists wear white coats and goggles!
Alongside that there was the Family Challenge: how tall a structure can you make out of thirty straws that will hold a marble? The winners managed 2.07m.
And if all that hadn't been enough, Sarah was providing sessions of our "Street Science" show throughout the day.

Brighton Science Festival

We will be there! Come along to the Synergy Centre (78, West Street) next Friday to find out more about our "Science for Winter Afternoons" - and you can even dip a candle!

We're open 10:30 to 4:30 but the earlier you get there, the more time you'll have to do things. There are loads of hands-on activities for all the family.

Tickets (on the door) are just £4 per person or £15 for a group of four.

See you there!

Science Under The Stars!

We had a great time at this event in Ormskirk last week. Our stand featured a lot of our favourite activities including jumping beans, rollers and hipsters. There were very many visitors keen to have a go and to make something to ask away with them. So many, in fact, that we needed the support of a team of very keen student teachers to be able to cope!

Fun! Fun! Fun!

Yes, we're all having fun this week at the ASE's Annual Conference in Birmingham. Already we've seen far more people than usual at both our stand (C40) and our talks, helping to inspire more teachers with fun ways to teach practical science - as you can see here.

Star Wars? No, it was star tours!

Martin spent last week touring schools in the Lowestoft area providing a workshop on the theme of stars and space.
In each of five different schools, Y5 and Y6 classes had chance to find out about phases of the moon, constellations, the solar system and even how current research is discovering more about supernovas.
The "Space" workshop is one of the many primary workshops on offer - see the primary workshop page for more details.

It's electric!

Using the sun's light to generate electricity was the focus of an activity Martin provided at the recent "Science at work" days in Milton Keynes. Showing how chemists have adapted the properties of silicon for photovoltaic cells was the background for about 480 pupils to investigate how these cells work.
They made solar-powered fans but, this being Britain, had to test them most of the time under lamps rather than outside in bright sunshine.
But everyone had a great time!

It wasn't a waste!

Sarah went to the RWM conference at the NEC to find out more about the waste industry. She saw an eddy current separator separating aluminium cans and other non-ferrous materials. Found out about separating with air and what happens to the left overs once everything that can be recycled is removed.

Of course, she took with her our jumping beans activity. Here she is with one of the exhibitors and with their jumping bean.

Big Bang South East

We had a great day at the South of England Showground this week with lots of visitors to our stand - we barely had time to stand still. All our visitors enjoyed making jumping beans (as you can see!), hoopsters and there was also our fantastic busking show too!

Click here to find out more about the busking.

Wakefield SPLATS!

A group of Y10 students from the Wakefield Grammar School Foundation spent a happy three days last week doing SPLATS. After one day of training to learn some of our workshops (see photograph), they then spent two days running science activities for about 250 Y5 primary pupils.

Dipping candles, flying kites and racing rollers all formed part of the fun. The Y5 pupils learnt lots of science and the Y10 students honed their transferable skills while they ran the various activities.

Both event days finished with smiles all round and several primary pupils asking about going to the secondary schools after they finish Y6.

Click here for more details about having a SPLATS in your school.

A lot of fun in Liverpool!

A group of trainee teachers from Liverpool Hope University enjoyed one of our Cascade courses recently. After a day spent learning some of our activities, they then had chance to put them into practice in a local primary school. What did they have to say?
"Very useful, in the three years of the course I haven’t had the opportunity to teach science in my schools, this has helped me get an intensive experience of practical science."
"Enjoyed running the practical science activities – I could run these activities with classes."
And they finished the day with big smiles still on their faces.

Click here for more details about Cascade.

New term, new workshop!

We're celebrating the start of the summer term by launching another exciting workshop.

Aimed at upper primary pupils, it is on the theme of "Separation". The pupils, working in pairs, are challenged to separate out different mixtures culminating in finding out how to separate dissolved carbon dioxide from a fizzy drink.