BRITISH SCIENCE WEEK ACTIVITY PACK REVIEW - SECONDARY

Whether or not you are joining in with British Science Week next March you can still download and use their 2019 activity packs to add extra hands on in your classroom.

The theme for 2019 is Journeys and as the Channel Tunnel is celebrating 25 years of being operational there are science and engineering ideas using that theme in every pack.
The Primary and Secondary packs have ideas for assemblies and all packs have a range of activities covering all aspects of science and abilities. 

In the secondary pack I quite iked the wind up car which is a starting point for a range of D&T activities.  This activity is taken from Robert Winston’s new book, Science Lab, and during it pupils learn how to use energy to move a vehicle by building a wind-up car. The aim is to discover that energy cannot be created or destroyed, it can only be transferred.

this is a very simple car design but can lead to a whole range of much more complex designs or can be used for other experiments that need a simple vehicle

Of all the pack I think my favourite has to be the Journey to the Afterlife—an exploration of   mummification.

The mummification process involved removing all the internal organs, packing the body with natron (a type of salt) to soak up all the moisture, and coating the remains in resin to prevent decomposition. Finally, the body was completely wrapped in linen bandages. After some research on the process your students will be ready to mummify their own body.

For a handy body students use an orange, scoop out the insides through a very small slit and stuff with kitchen paper. The paper is replaced as it gets soggy so that eventually the inside of the orange is dry. They then have to make their own spices mix and a version of natron using salt and bicarbonate of soda.  The orange is then wrapped up mummy style and left somewhere warm and dry.

You can find the packs here: https://www.britishscienceweek.org/plan-your-activities/activity-packs/

BRITISH SCIENCE WEEK 2019 ACTIVITY PACKS REVIEW - PRIMARY

Whether or not you are joining in with British Science Week in March you can still download and use their 2019 activity packs to add extra hands on in your classroom.

The theme for 2019 is Journeys and as the Channel Tunnel is celebrating 25 years of being operational there are science and engineering ideas using that theme in every pack.

At 37.9km (23.5miles), the Tunnel still holds the record for the world’s longest under-sea tunnel. The  project took five years to complete and involved over 13,000 engineers, technicians and workers. However, its journey started over 100 years before that; the first design for a cross-Channel tunnel was produced in 1802 and the first attempt at a tunnel excavation was in 1880. 

 The British Science Week activity packs feature activities relating to rock layering, tunnels and signals, and time and speed

In the primary pack there are quite a few very simple activities needing hardly any resources such as making a "snakes and ladders" type game but using tunnels as a theme or designing an infographic using the tunnel statistics as a focus.

There are also a few more unusual activities such as designing a lunar rover and I would build it too! 

I particularly like the Sneeze Zone experiment which shows how far droplets can travel when we sneeze. Use a water spray to demonstrate the difference between just sneezing, using your hand to cover your face and using a tissue.

This could also be linked to activities explaining why we need to wash our hands.

I also like the electric dough experiments from the popular science magazine Whiz Pop Bang. 

The idea is to make some very salty dough and using the science fact that salt is a great conductor of electricity use it to replace wires in an electric circuit. 

Pupils can use LEDs as eyes in a creature or make light up pieces of art or use LEDs as headlights.

This can be used to build on existing knowledge of circuits or as an interesting start to the topic. I think it would also make a finale to the topic because it is so different to conventional circuits. If there isn't enough information for you in the pack you can find much more about electric dough online

You can find the packs here: https://www.britishscienceweek.org/plan-your-activities/activity-packs/

An Amazing Journey

A BRAND NEW SHOW for British Science Week 2019

The theme for this year is Journeys and we have created a super new show

The show An Amazing Journey goes ultra small—into the microscopic world that makes us healthy humans.  

In the show we meet RBC—the brand new red blood cell who is busy  learning how to deliver oxygen all around the body meeting other cells with important jobs like the superhero white blood cells who are busy fighting off diseases.  

We will be using our little friend the rhinovirus to show how germs spread, and measuring how far sneeze droplets can travel.

Our friend Cal ( calcium) will helps us discover how we need a healthy diet to give us strong teeth and bones and with audience help will build a skeleton .

We will also be finding out and decoding the secret messages deep inside  every cell making us totally unique.

This show for both Key Stages at Primary school has lots of dressing up and joining in and we are quite excited about it!! 

The class sized workshops to go with the show are KS1 Super Senses including feely tubs, smelly eggs and “the mystery liquid challenge” and for KS2 How Clean Are You? where we will be looking closely at gross and gruesome body bits plus making and testing toothpaste.

 

We want as many schools as possible to be able to book us for BSW so we are running a very special 50% discount for primary schools booking this show and workshops but as you know BSW is actually only one week so the offer is running during the whole of March. This means that  smaller schools could have us in for the whole day for as little as £250—an amazing price!   Email info@science2u.co.uk

If you are planning your own BSW event don’t forget to download the activity packs—there is one for each key stage. They are full of brilliant ideas—how about mummifying an

orange or making reflective clothing?

You can find them all here:

https://www.britishscienceweek.org/plan-your-activities/activity-packs/

BRITISH SCIENCE WEEK ACTIVITY PACK REVIEW - Early Years

Whether or not you are joining in with British Science Week in March you can still download and use their 2019 activity packs to add extra hands on in your classroom.

The theme for 2019 is Journeys and as the Channel Tunnel is celebrating 25 years of being operational there are science and engineering ideas using that theme in every pack.

The Primary and Secondary packs have ideas for assemblies and all packs have a range of activities covering all aspects of science and abilities. Many require very little equipment, often you will find a literacy link such as the journey of the Very Hungry Caterpillar. Some will be enough all on their own others will link into many other topics that you may be doing.

All of the packs have health and safety info for a risk assessment should it be needed for that activity.

I like the Early Years everyday journeys Be Seen Be Safe exploring different materials for brightness and reflectivity and I think it is something that your pupils will be able to relate to.

 It is also very easy to resource using black sugar paper to make a T shirt then collecting different materials and using a torch see how well they reflect. These can be added to the Tshirt to make something that will get them seen in the dark winter nights. You could also explore glow in the dark materials and stickers

So many youngsters love dinosaurs so the activity Dinosaur Adaptation where pupils create their own dino, thinking about where it lives and how that impacts on the design plus things like colour and camouflage will really hit the mark.
Your pupils can use model dinosaurs and pictures to think about how they are adapted to their environment. They could make modelling clay dinos and create a habitat using found items. they can also create large drawings or paintings of their own design coming up with a scientific name.

You can find the packs here: https://www.britishscienceweek.org/plan-your-activities/activity-packs/