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/

Two shows in Cheshire - Weaverham High School and UCAN

on stage at UCAN

This week we were out and about in Cheshire sharing exciting science shows organised by CheshireSTEM

Our secondary science show is called   "I Wasn't Expecting That!"  because that is what we love about science  - how you are often surprised by results and amazed by materials.
In the morning we were warmly welcomed at Weaverham High school by Janet Kolita the Careers Co-ordinator and shown into the school hall to set up for a show with the whole of their year 7 about 200 pupils. Many thanks to their science technicians and caretaker for helping us set up.

Thankfully this hall has a super high ceiling so we were able to include most of our fire demonstrations and of course our finale whoosh bottle. We had a great time - year 7 were an enthusiastic audience, keen to join in and very interested in how the demos worked.
There were some quite jealous older pupils when they saw what we had all been up to as we were clearing away during break time.

The afternoon school was not very far away so we were able to drop in to Weaver Hall museum for a coffee and freshen up and we managed to meet up for a quick catch up with Tom Hughes who runs the education team.

Then we were off to University of Chester Academy Northwich (UCAN) for a second show again with year 7s.

About 90 pupils were in the hall for another exciting set of demonstrations with lots of volunteers getting involved especially with the handwarmers and colour change straws. We were up on the stage in the main hall which was a great setting for the show. We were even able to make the hall really dark so that the plasma ball, rainbow flames, fire balls and whoosh bottle were really effective.
Everyone had a great time including the staff who were happy to join in and let us try to blow them up!

After a busy day it was back to base to pack up for the next day........

Big Bang @ school in Fazakerley

We had a super day with the team from MerseySTEM, a great gang from Amey and the Big Bang Northwest folk sharing science with year 9 at Fazakerley High School.

Quite an early start for a day themed around our environment sponsored by Amey.
We had been asked to present on Plastics - Superhero OR Supervillain!
So we decide to resurrect an old favourite using Polycaprolactone AKA POLYMORPH which is a thermo moulding biodegradable plastic.
These great little granules transform at about 62C into transparent, chewing gum looking, stretchy, wonderfully tactile strands that can be moulded into a huge range of things for hobbies, electronics, engineering and crafts.

We chose to make keyrings with a bit of added bling in the form of glitter.

We used silicon ice cube moulds and added a small key chain. There were quite a few creative folk who designed their own rather than use a mould - very inventive!

We started with a brief intro and discussion about why plastic has such a bad reputation and how we can help to reduce the energy and waste issue by recycling. So the challenge is to find a material  like plastic but with none of the bad points - well we couldn't quite get rid of all the bad points but certainly the waste issue - a biodegradable plastic really helps.

Throughout the day we had 6 workshops so everyone in year 9 got to experience our presentation.

Once they got their hands on the polymorph and had a good play to discover just how it behaved they then used pre glittered moulds to make their bespoke keyring.

The school made us extremely welcome with a super lunch prepared by the in house catering staff.

We left the science team with a sample and all the little left over bits from the day so they should have good fun and a great introduction to polymers.

thanks for having us FHS

Winter Tour 2013

Well what a week it has been! Busy - certainly, tiring - definitely. fun - OH YES!!!
Over the 3 days of the road trip we visited 6 schools, delivered 8 shows and shared science with over 1000 pupils.
Monday was a preparation day so I was running through the various demonstrations we would be doing, checking equipment and making sure the experiments actually worked.
Tuesday was spent weighing out chemicals, packing up our boxes and then the car and working out directions to the schools plus timings for journeys.
Wednesday morning we were off!
First stop St Ambrose Barlow CHS in Sefton.
We were in a super amphitheatre style lecture hall with great acoustics.
This school is definitely into social media and very quickly we were trending on Twitter with a flurry of super pictures, tweets, retweets and favourites.

Iron filings

bubbles from dry ice

All too soon the first show was over and we were off again - this time to Kirky High school in a small lecture theatre after being assured we wouldn't set off the alarms ( fingers crossed!)
We were close to the hall so carrying all the gear was easy and we were soon set up and ready to go. First we had year 8 who certainly enjoyed the show and joined in enthusiastically. The venue was too small for all the pupils so we did a shorter show and then went straight into a 2nd show with year 9 who were full of questions about how the science worked.

Thursday morning was so windy it became a real problem to load the car but off we went to Knowsley Park Centre for Learning. Their caretaker was such a huge help because we couldn't cope with the high winds and our boxes - lids flying off, doors slamming shut, car doors flinging open. It was a relief to be inside and out of the wind.
We had a great time with year 7 who were really amazed at some of our science demonstrations and had lots of questions. Mr Reed from the school was taking photos and the results are incredible as you can see - especially the long exposure whoosh bottle from our finale.

dry ice

the plasma ball

is it magic? neutralisation demonstration
notice the pink liquid turning to clear

With help from the caretaking staff we managed to pack the car and gingerly drove to Maghull - police were out in force to guide cars across some of the more exposed bridges. Finally we arrived at our only primary school of the trip - St Thomas'.
Two shows - one for the infants - such a delight especially with the colour changing straws and the freaky hand. Then the juniors and a special guest appearance for two strong gentlemen from year 6 hoping to be scientists one day who helped us to unload, as they became amazing human light switches with our plasma ball

Helen catches a dry ice bubble

dry ice fun

how hot are your hands?

the faces say it all

Friday- so it must be Ormiston Bolingbroke Academy in Runcorn- a beautiful new building but the Learning Plaza where we were performing was a real wind tunnel which caused huge problems with the milk powder flame ball - I think I still have most of the hairs on my arm!!

Finally off across country to Lymm High School and a huge traditional school hall with tiered seating at the back for over 300 yr 7s who were very excited to be having a show on a Friday afternoon!!
Again we had problem with draughts blowing out our Bunsen burner this time, but the welcome was HOT HOT HOT and the audience applauded everything  so you can imagine the noise when we set off the whoosh bottle finale. We brought the house down - a standing ovation lasting a good 5 minutes.
At last we trekked home to unpack and wash all the glassware, clean out the boxes and finally put our feet up..... until Tuesday when we are off to Daresbury again!
I love my job

the whoosh bottle
taken on a long exposure
notice the red trail of the lit splint as it shoots out of the bottle

Flight Day - To Infinity and Beyond

Recently we had a fantastic day with our good friends Knowsley Park Centre for Learning.

The theme of  their special day was Flight and all year 6 pupils from their feeder schools were invited. The remit was for a 30 minute hands on workshop which we would repeat 8 times - busy day!

We had also been asked to repeat our very successful Whoosh bottle demonstration.
So we created a session looking at why birds can fly and we can't. We heard about the Greek myth of Icarus, We examined feathers ( all cleaned thoroughly ) through a hand lens and saw the structure and how one worked.

We laughed at some of those magnificent men in their flying machines and then looked to the stars and space.


We asked the all important question - how do you go to the loo in space??

We examined what is really inside an astronauts nappy and finally we set off our whoosh bottle with rocket fuel.

The session was really appreciated by both chidlren and staff
A good day all round - thank for inviting us to be part of it

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.........