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