An adventure with Year 5

This week we were in Liverpool at St Oswald's Catholic Junior school in Old Swan to work with their three year 5 classes as part of their science week.

Year 5 have been studying Changing Materials and knew all about mixing vinegar with bicarbonate of soda. They had used it to blow up a balloon

So we showed them another way to have fun with this mixture that they could use for their demonstrations during the week

this is Helen's favourite - she calls it the freaky hand

We also showed them some of the super materials from our stash that change depending on temperature.

We started by closely observing what actually goes on in a handwarmer

They loved the colour change straws 

and the heat sensitive paper 

but the LCD sheets got the biggest wow

Of course it wouldn't be a Science2U event without our wonderful hydrogel balls which this time Helen poured into our fish tank and amazingly they disappeared....until of course a very brave Joe  put his hand in and found them all seemingly invisible in the water!

To finish our session we built on their knowledge of the vinegar and bicarbonate experiment by creating bath bombs where you don't use vinegar ( who want to have a bath in vinegar???) but citric acid to add that special fizz and our wonderful bubble gum fragrance which is a hit with all ages

Next we are off to Chester with a whole day of being healthy - It's All About You 

The Summer Term

WOW! Doesn't time fly by??
Here we are at the May Bank Holiday and I do apologise for not posting for a while.
So what have we been up to and what is in the pipeline?

As some of you may know Science2U works closely with our local STEMNET provider - MerseySTEM and CheshireSTEM.

The ever energetic Michelle Dow and her team organise regular Chemistry at Work days and this year they have a home at Daresbury Laboratories. We have become a feature if these days which bring together scientists from industry and local secondary schools.
For us of course we don't have a "job" to share so our presentation is A Day in the Life of  a Science Presenter. We share lots of the amazing gadgets and gizmos that we use in our shows.
The teachers are always eager to find out where we get our resources especially the hydrogel balls, colour change straws and the heat sensitive paper.

We often take our large tank with us to demonstrate "Heavy Sugar" which is a very graphic visualisation of just how much sugar there is in a fizzy drink.
Our good friend and colleague Lorelly Wilson demonstrates it wonderfully on the RSC Primary Science DVD

Of course if we have a tank full of water it would be remiss of us not to tip in a bucket full of hydrogel balls which apparently disappear!

It wouldn't be a Science2U event if we didn't make bath bombs so usually everyone gets to take home a bubble gum scented fizzing chemistry muffin to pop in their bath.