CATCH UP TIME!

Now that the school Easter holiday is here I have time to catch up on what we have been up to over the past few weeks.
We had an amazing day at Ellesmere Port Boat museum as part of  BOOST's STEM event.
Amazingly we didn't drop anything into the water as we made our way across the cobbles and over the lock bridges to the rooms we were using - thank goodness for the trolley but note to self - must buy bungees to stop things slipping!!

Throughout the day we worked with groups of about 30 primary aged pupils, looking at Supermarket Science - our take on "do try this at home" type of science - 5 sessions in all.
We used our latest gizmos to inspire ideas, showing lots of mini experiments to have a go at - and everything can be bought from the supermarket!

The highlight was making their own bath bomb mini muffin to take home although I quite liked my heart shaped versions!

Then it was a very busy day at DaresburySIC with MerseySTEM and secondary school pupils.

Again 5 sessions back to back as Helen and I explained what a Day in the Life of a Science presenter is really like!
Stars of this event were without doubt our amazing jelly marbles which swell to about 30 times their original size and seem to disappear in water.

Colour changing straws which are great but we had to keep in the fridge because the room was so warm!

Bath bombs featured here too and a mass slime making fest!

So now we have two weeks of school holiday to make sure we are ready for the summer term, having done a mini mail drop and following up on possible bookings we should have a good few weeks.
watch this space!

So another week of holiday events ends! I wonder how many families will be having a go at the experiments this weekend? Sales of the booklet have gone really well plus lots of questions about further exploration. It is great to see families all having a go at the experiments not just the kids - I love it when grandma wants to get messy with the cornflour - that is what hands on science really is!!
Some other people expanded their horizons this week - huge thanks to all the helpers that took part - this was definitely not a one man band! Some of the Catalyst staff left their normal work and came to muck in... and made a brilliant job of it. Special mention to Nathan - the slime king!! and to Sian - queen of the gloop.

just one problem - who realised just how long it wold take to get rid of a tub of gloop after we had finished running on it!