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| This is Timmy |
As regular readers will know we don't have totally different shows for different ages across the primary school - that would mean us needing so many more resources and overload my lab/garage.
We take a main theme - usually from the National Curriculum or something we know most schools teach and then we tweak it for all ages. Our presentation and delivery reflect the age, plus of course some of the content has to be differentiated for age and ability.
So this theme looks at what we need to be a fit and healthy human - exercise, diet, keeping clean, colds and germs and lots more.
With the youngest groups we bring in Timmy to help us choose what to pack in our school lunch box - many schools follow a healthy eating menu and discourage sweets, crisps and chocolate from the lunchbox. One of my daughters spent most of her primary school time eating cream cheese triangles and raisins - not sure how schools would manage that one!
We have collected a range of play foods, empty cartons plus some very convincing fruit props. The children help Timmy to pack a lunch that they will eat and that is healthy.
We have managed to get hold of a giant mouth
this lets us look at teeth, the different types and what they are used for plus how we should clean them.
Of course we couldn't let that one go without seeing just how good commercial toothpaste really is so we make up our own using bicarbonate of soda and a few other ingredients and we test it against shop bought toothpaste. Actually the home made is very good at the job - even if the children like to make purple and bright yellow toothpaste!
We explore exercise and how it affects heart rate using a huge heart which acts as a stethoscope - it is quite weird hearing your own heartbeat and then a disembodied voice telling your heart rate.
Probably one of the most popular demonstrations shows how germs spread. This is often done in secondary schools but there is no reason why primary can't have a go. Usually you use a special gel which will glow under UV light but in a show situation this slows down the pace and limits how many can see the results so we use glitter gel and it is very surprising just how far a speck of glitter will travel.
We also have a rather cute rhinovirus - we will have to give him a name - any suggestions?
he is over 15 inches tall and apparently lives in your nose!
Of course it wouldn't be Science2U is we didn't use our expertise in personal hygiene products so we make bath bombs and pouring soap with volunteers.
This show works well with all ages and fits with some of our best hands on sessions in the classroom. We have also created some great follow up material. So all in all we are pretty pleased with this one.
We even have some monsters - if the school has a screen we can reveal.....
just what a sweat gland looks like......
and just how much mucous you produce when you have a cold
I love my job!
