Strange day- possibly the last science club I will do at Catalyst.
Some of you know that I am leaving the science centre at Christmas to start up my own business.

When I  left teaching to come to Catalyst the one thing I thought I would really miss was that special relationship a teacher has with the class - whether it is a primary teacher who has 30 or so kids for a whole year or the secondary teacher who might teach 100s but also gets to see them every week for months on end. You build up a special bond - sometimes you are relieved to see them go...let's be honest but mostly you get a special joy watching them mature and grasp whatever you have been trying to pass on.

My Mike 

As education manager at Catalyst I teach about 11,000 kids every year and usually see them only once so no chance of getting to know them at all. 

Science club has given me the chance to really get to know a whole group of great kids - some I have known for 6 years! I have watched them grow up - written references for some, written college and university letters for some, chatted over the nerves about going to secondary school with the young ones, chatted over the nerves about going to uni with the older ones!
It has been a joy to watch as youngsters choose to study science, to help out with tricky homework and for just a few to watch as they succeed in science at A level and go to university.

When I arrived there were 6 in the club and it was a bit intense - which for those of you who know me just is not my style. We now have over 60 on the books who come pretty regularly - there were 35 there today either in SSC for the younger ones or in OATs the older group. New ones arrive almost every month.

Mike Pitts one of our helpers in a show

The idea is to make science exciting and accessible by doing so lots of hands on experiments. They love being lab rats for new shows the education team is developing and they certainly know how to give feedback!! We invite local scientists to come in a share their work or their favourite experiments - it is a great place for potential STEM ambassadors to cut their teeth.
And so to Scientific Santa - a tradition we stared 5 years ago where we make presents with a science feel. It actually gets quite hard to think up new ideas but as the members move on we can bring back old favourites.
Of course it wouldn't be us if we didn't make soap and this year we made bath bombs too.

soap fruits

thermoplastic keyrings and Christmas decorations

We made keyrings coloured with glitter from our fantastic thermoplastic and I managed to get hold of some candle kits that only need the heat of your hand to melt and mold the wax. But I think the runaway success this year was the BOING BOING balls - little crystals poured into moulds that are submerged in water for a minute and then set into amazing bouncy balls. Huge fun

So thanks to all the volunteers and helpers over the last 6 years that have made science club possible - special thanks to my husband Mike, who only came to carry the heavy stuff but ended up as one of the main leaders - you know I couldn't have done all this without you x

blowing up icing sugar testing it for the Big Bang show

testing candyfloss for the suagr and spice show

slime 

blowing up Charlie

sugar glass - science of the movies

Advent Calendars at the ready

The web is full of ideas for Christmas and I  love some of the scientific advent calendars around but thought I would just share some ideas for pressies. Sadly many are from the States - why do they always have the best gifts!!

for the girl who either needs to cheat in her exams or just loves her elements nearby 

a periodic table bangle!

clean up your chemistry with  a periodic table bar of soap

keep science close to your heart

or maybe create a lurve potion!!

I will share more if I come across them

Climate Change project

A few months ago I was totally blown over by a phone call from a member of the Science Museum London's outreach team asking if Catalyst would think about being part of a project with them......after I had picked myself up from the floor....
The project is a three year exploration of climate change inspired by the Museum's atmosphere gallery http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/ClimateChanging/AtmosphereGallery.aspx 

Last year a couple of centres took part working with schools to share ideas about climate change through art. This year the sharing is through print - journalism actually.
Each school has to produce a double page spread of articles and interviews about local climate issues which will then be worked on by a graphics team to create an actual magazine. This will be published and the schools  and pupils will all get copies and a travelling exhibition will be produced and go to all the participating museums and science centres.
So early Tuesday morning the science museum team arrived at Catalyst to set up for the day.
The school kids arrived - 60 year 9s from local schools in Cheshire and Wirral and even one from North wales and the day began!
A fun session with Punk Science followed by an interview on journalism. then a tour around the museum and lunch. The afternoon session was a hands on have a go at being your own journalistic team to get the ideas flowing.
Over the three days 7 different schools have been challenged and they have until Spring 2012 to produce their ideas. 
A really exciting project which I will keep my readers up to date with. Watch this space.....

Saving the Planet

We have just finished a week of Enterprise where we challenge large teams for 12 - 16 year olds to create a gizmo to save the planet by using alternative energy methods or recycling or similar.They then have to pitch their idea, models and all to a small team of Dragons from industry!
Helen and I have done this event since 2007 and we have pretty well seen it all but this year we had some new ideas.
One which was totally unique wanted to harness the energy produced by all those small earthquakes that happen every day. Another wanted every factory to have its own CO2 scrubber made from a small plantation of trees - they called it the Tree factory.
It is great to see young people thinking so imaginatively without boundaries. Their science may not be up to the task but because they have no pre-conceptions they think very radically. Perhaps this is the way for companies to go - have brainstorming sessions with youngsters then bring in the scientists to filter out those possible for development.

The Story tent

I have just finished creating a dedicated space for story telling at Catalyst. We have been telling stories for a few years - Herby the hedgehog goes recycling, Freddie the Frog - a life story and Bertie the Bear explores light and dark. Stories for the very young with a science feel. We made our own stories and big books and used props to make it come alive.
Now however we have moved on to myths and legends about science facts - story telling for an older age group.
The first story - hot off the press - explores world myths about rainbows, from the Greek Goddess Iris through the Aborigine Rainbow serpent to the Hawaiian rainbow maiden. then we link in how a rainbow is formed and the spectrum and finish with our wonderful rainbow glasses that split white light up into a myriad of rainbows - quite a trip really!

The idea of the story tent is to create a space removed from the science centre that is peaceful and quiet and creates an atmosphere of wonder. Our room certainly does that!

Arnold School from Blackpool were the first ones to try it out yesterday. The year 4 group said it was awesome - quite a compliment I think.

It does look a bit like a tarts boudoir with all the swathes of material and coloured lights but it is a super place to tell legends and I think year 4 might be making some of their own up back at school.
Now I am off to research the myths about the sun, stars, moon and planets.........

Gunpowder Treason and Plot!

We have just finished Autumn half term holiday week at Catalyst which is usually one of our busiest weeks of the year. This time was no exception.

I have created a show on the theme of Bonfire night so all about gunpowder, fireworks and generally blowing thinks up. As ever I tweak the basic show because I get very easily bored so won't do the same thing over and over. This time I added some spectacular indoor fireworks - I am not sure I would ever use them inside my home - I am sure they would set fire to the place!! but they worked fantastically in the show room.
In the show I talk about fuel which leads onto the custard factory explosion - so then I can do some dust explosions. HSD loss prevention consultants have loaned me a piece of kit - a Hartman tube which they use to test dust explosions.
So I set off icing sugar and because the kit is very safe I can get a volunteer to come and set it off. This time I also added the classic demo where you sprinkle something like coffee whitener over a flame and it was certainly impressive. The finale is the whoosh bottle which always gets a round of applause .
We had full houses for nearly every show and it certainly went down well.

We are taking the show out on the road next week to  Liverpool so I hope they turn the fire alarms off!!!

How many senses have we got?
Really funny week with very little ones!
We have just finished a week of themed activities with mainly younger children based around Healthy Humans. One of the workshops was tasty toothpaste where we make our own bicarbonate of soda based toothpaste and try it out against shop bought ones. It always makes me laugh how many of the little ones offer to let me brush their own teeth with it! We don't of course - we use ceramic tiles with flowers drawn on in permanent marker and they brush the tile but.....
They love making up weird colours - as soon as they realise that the colour really doesn't make the toothpaste work any better they all want purple or brown or orange.

One of the other sessions we have been doing is called Our Super Senses so of course the first question is how many senses do we have....well that is a debate and a half. One little girl was sure we had 9 because we breathe and we have knees - you try responding to that one without grinning!

Today we had 5 groups - 150 little ones aged between 5 and 7 all trying to identify mystery smells and work out what objects were hidden in the shakers. It was really super to see a visually impaired lad be the best in his class and working out the answers - without good eyesight his other senses truly are SUPER!

So I have sent them all home to see what happens if you hold your nose while you eat.... I can imagine some interesting conversations at the dinner table this weekend!