BIRTHDAY GIRLS!

WHOOP WHOOP

It's our birthday!  Five years ago this week Science2U was officially registered as a company and Helen and I began trading
It didn't seem real at first - we had a bit of trouble finding a name - we were "science in a van" for quite a few days but then realised we probably hadn't got enough money for a van so after much thought Science2U was born - great idea Rob - thank you!

Creating our website took time but was easy - we wanted a site that reflected us - bright, enthusiastic and friendly. I think we've nailed that one!

Coming up with shows to share was easy - we knew what we enjoyed and the ideas bubbled up. Searching for resources was fun, finding everyday things that we could use in science, buying some "real" science equipment.

a tiny bath used to demonstrate bath bombs

The day we got our first booking was amazing - I didn't expect to have such a surge of joy.
The day we got our first cheque we broke open the champagne!

Bookings were quite sparse at first - mainly freebies to drum up trade but slowly word got round and we started to get a real feel that we were a proper company.

One of the early highlights for us was a two day booking in Oldham. We decided that rather than trail all the way back home after a long day we would stay overnight. A road trip!

forces through toys at Oldham

A trip during Science week up beyond Preston to the Ribble Valley was a real treat - at first we had no idea where we were going but when we arrived at the school in a quaint village we realised that this was something special. Brabins Endowed primary school is very very old

Working with the then MerseySTEM team took us back on the road around Cheshire and the following year around Merseyside delivering secondary shows.

Last year we worked for a whole week with IGNITE at the Ellesmere Port boat museum during Science week. Five workshops every day sharing Smart materials and making bath bombs

Working with Mexichem as a sponsor has brought us great joy because we have been able to share science with some wonderful young people at Chestnut Lodge Special School.

Our days with them have been full of laughter!

Probably one of the highlights has been appearing at BigBangNW science fair.

2014 - total surprise to be on the show stage

The first year we went was a total surprise - we didn't expect to be one of the main acts - so no nerves because we thought we were going to be in a small room doing a little demonstration.

We ended up on the show stage with 100s in the audience

Things have grown every year as has our show.

dry ice finale

Helen became the poster girl in 2015

and the 2016 photos have been seen by 1000s

We have had some amazing times and judging by British Science Week bookings for this March it looks like we many more to come

Thanks for all your support!

Christmas Jingle Bells at Daresbury

Tuesday 9th December and we were off to Daresbury labs for our final Chemistry at Work Day of this year with MerseySTEM.
It being pretty close to the holidays we decided to make this one a bit special so when it came to making the usual bath bombs as part of our hands on take home make for the session we created Christmas puddings.

Getting the puddings right took quite a bit of experimenting - we usually use liquid food colouring for the bombs but it is very hard to get a proper brown so after some research we eventually coloured the brown base using powdered pigment especially created for cosmetics which we made into solution - it took quite a bit of trial and error to get a good pudding colour that wouldn't stain the bath, the towels and the person!!
We had splotchy brown hands for a few days.

We topped it off with plain white mix and a holly sprig.

Then of course the all important fragrance.......finally after quite a bit of sniff testing we decided the bath bombs would be fragranced with mince pie mix which made the whole room smell spicy and seasonal. At first I thought it was a very seasonal and cheerful smell but after making a few I began to long for the usual bubblegum fragrance. I am not sure it really was mince pies more like mulled wine without the drink! Quite how that will work in a bath I am not sure plus when we demonstrated using our little bath the water was a decided brown - not the best look in a bath.
Fortunately in a real bath the brown will dilute to a peachy tinge!

There were some teachers from schools we had met before and it was good to see some old friends and to make new ones especially as they joined our mailing list for the newsletter.

So we have completed another year of Chemistry at Work days and look forward to being able to join in the fun in 2105.

As I am writing this post I can see we have broken through 6000 hits - thank you to everyone who reads our blog, thank you for your support.

Colour Change Technology

As regular readers will know Science2U likes to play with new technology and share gadgets and gizmos that are out there and available for everyone to get hold of.
In our Chemistry@work days at Daresbury lab we often share our colour change straws - thermochromic plastic

 our heat sensitive paper - thermochromic ink

and our colour change shower curtain  - hydrochromic technology.

Our latest purchase is actually a toddler playmat but it uses hydrochromic colour change technology to allow young children to draw using only water.
Remember those magic painting books where you only used water and colour appeared - well think like that but re-useable!
Our mat is in rainbow colours so using a water filled pen you can draw or using a brush you can paint  and even use stamps on a water mat. Water reveals an almost magical rainbow of colour which eventually fades away as the mat dries. You can see the appeal to parents - no mess and the only consumable is water!

Our idea is to ask the school groups to sign in with a graffitti style tag which we will display throughout the session but by the time the next group arrives it will have dried out and faded ready to be used again.

Along with our UV colour change loom band bracelets

link to Youtube UV colour change loom bands

we think we have a winning summer fun session for our last Chem@work day of this acadmic year

STEM day

So the summer holiday is a vague memory and we are well into the Autumn term.
Our first booking of this school year was a full day of Chemistry at Work funded by the Royal Society of Chemistry and organised by the great team of Cheshire and Mersey STEM.
These days have found a super home at Daresbury labs hosted by Wendy and Alan who make us most welcome.

This time we had 9 schools from around Cheshire, Merseyside, Halton and the Wirral - that's over 100 pupils between year 7 and year 9 but we also had a treat with some year 11s sneaking in.
It was great to see old faces from the Ambassadors at Mexichem but also super to meet new people from TechniquestGlyndwr.
The idea of the day is a carousel of providers who share what they get up to in their various jobs.

Our sessions demonstrate what we do as professional science presenters so we take lots of gadgets and gizmos and this time we took our brilliant new Energy Sticks which we used to invigorate the science teachers who then livened up the pupils!!

We don't have freebies to give away but we do make a give away - our famous mini muffin bath bombs in bubble gum fragrance.
Everyone made one to take home and we only had a couple of disasters......

these were too wet ( probably due to adding too much colour) and the chemical reaction started...by the end of the session these were mushroom shaped and making a bid to escape but after sitting on the windowsill for the day they developed a hard crust so even though they looked a bit weird they should still work.

These were rather bright.....someone didn't stick to the maximum number of drops of colour....I do hope they didn't turn green when they had a bath but the towels might....... ooooops!

Another great day...so next we are off to a special event with our great friends Knowesley Centre for Learning who have a feeder primary day on the theme of flight.....our hands on sessions are entitled To Infinity and Beyond!! watch this space.........

National Science and Engineering Week 2014

So it has finally been announced...the theme for NSEW 2014 will be......there won't be one.
Ha!
Actually there will be a schools focus Explore the Future which is extremely broad and follows on from last year's Invention and Discovery which was such a success for us at Science2U.
One of the brilliant things about running your own company and having that little bit more time is that Helen and I can actually do research and think about what we want to deliver rather than frantically trying to fill a huge programme of events.

We spend time researching modern materials, playing with some of the amazing gadgets and gizmos that are out there and wondering if we can justify buying something that we really like but can't quite see where we can fit it into our programme!

So I think Explore the Future could be a very liberating theme for us.

We have already started gathering new resources for the next academic year. This is our latest

It is called the Energy Stick and we have trialled it at a Chemistry at work day at Daresbry labs where we had a whole class of year 9s all connected in a circuit making their teachers light up!
Huge fun!
So this blog will probably be fairly quiet for the summer with just an occasional post letting you know what we have discovered on our travels. We intend to visit Chester Zoo - they have a major exhibit on BUGS  and we are seriously wondering about creating a show and workshops around habitats and minibeasts definitely fits into that.
Enjoy your summer and if you are a teacher recharge the batteries!