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!

kitchen chemistry to the MAX

This week our family activity is kitchen chemistry. It is a brief demo session followed by about 30 minutes of intense hands on. We have had people walking on custard ( well cornflour really) and making slime plus home made indicator testing and so on.
One thing I forgot - summer is not the time for red cabbage but I managed to create a very passable indicator using blackberries which smells so much nicer than the cabbage and works just fine!
Everyone has to pitch in and help with this one as it is very staff intensive - and we are two staff down - one has moved on and one is off long term sick! What am I doing to folk!! So all the volunteers have been thrown in at the deep end - even someone who only wanted to observe Learning outside the classroom for two days - we don't do observing but we do roll our sleeves up and get involved! And boy Vikki has - brilliantly!
So more of the same tomorrow - plus sales of my book ( well booklet really!) have raised over £7 so far - which is not bad as it all helps to go towards the consumables!!

It's been ages since I have been able to post anything and sincere apologies to those who follow this blog.
Life has been hectic both at home and at the science centre.
At home - we finally lost the battle to save our pusscat Smartie which left a huge whole in our lives. We had no intentions of getting more cats - this was to be the last in the long line of Halliday chocolate named cats. But the house was so quiet and if one of us was away we really noticed how silent the house was!
So we now have kittens - and there is a reason the house was quiet - quiet being a lovely description....and not what we have now. Cute and cuddly and mayhem is what we have right now. So no computers - they managed to break my laptop within a week! No jewellery making - beads are way too tempting and very little anything else..... and no blog!! The boys are called Theo and Bromo ( OK so think about it... all our cats have been named after chocolate bars....think "theobromocacao.......")

Add to this the fact that Carrie Anne long time education team member and Egyptologist finally took the plunge and launched into the big wide world of the National Trust! So Helen and I are running the place over the summer - and not really firing on all cylinders because we are so rushed. Helen only works part time so at the end of a day I am lying down in a dark room with a BIG drink!!

Summer holiday activities stared well with Musical Junk - you guessed it musical intruments from recycled rubbish - very Blue Peter!
Now we are into Bubble Trouble - bubbles of all sizes. This is a great day out for all ages but especially the little ones - as long as they don't drink the bubbles. When you are 3 it is hard to remember when to suck and when to blow!!

We also have a brilliant  project running in the lab to celebrate International year of Chemistry 2011. Working with Keele uni and RSC NW Trust we have created a molecule treasure trail around the building linking molecules to our exhibits and in the lab you can build molecules of all shapes and sizes from MolyMod.

It is Tuesday end of play and we have had two great days of bubbles - we are all damp but we have had good visitor numbers.
Next week is the science of your summer holidays so lots of sandcastles and liquid nitrogen ice cream.

All I need now is a little peace and quiet to finish off the script....so I won't be doing it at home then!!!

make some noise for Catalyst!

We had a visit yesterday from Esther McVey MP for West Kirby on the Wirral. She toured the place and saw what we get up to and bless her tweeted all about it. We need more of this if we are to up our visitor numbers and continue to be able to offer the brilliant hands on science that happens here.
Centres like ours are expensive to run and we get NOTHING from the Government or local council so we are totally reliant on money through the door - either from the visitors or through sponsorship.
Times are hard -we all know that - but science needs somewhere like us to be able to offer exciting activities that stretch the imagination and engage people in science. Families making science based costmetics, science club members doing stuff they can't get their hands on in school; teachers pushing their own boundaries and having a go!
One young man told his teacher last week that this was the coolest place he had ever been to and could he bring his mum to see us! Of course!!!!!
So friends and followers - if you have any influence give a shout out for us - because if people don't know how great we are then we don't get the recognition we need and of course we don't get the money to keep us going. We may be small but we punch way above our weight and WOW do we make science exciting!

more science fun

being creative - making new shows

this is the reaction I am looking for!

So what about next year?

I am actually on holiday from Catalyst but being away from the workface helps to be creative rather than being bogged down in day to day minutiae.
So my thoughts have turned towards the new programme for 2011/12 which is usually published in mid June and sent out about 4,000 schools.
The first thing I need to do is to check the school holiday dates which this time are much more sensible. The current academic year has seen half term and Easter holiday dates all over the place which has caused us real problems at Catalyst as our visitors come from across many education authorities with different holiday dates.
However next year everything seems to synchronise which is a really good thing and should help us with visitor figures.
Some local schools were only actually in school for 6 days in April - so of course no-one was going to arrange a trip out but we also had to contend with Easter Bank holidays and other authorities being off school. In the end we made the decision to run three weeks of activities - hence all the candy floss!!

A couple of my guest speakers have decided to retire so next year I will have to think about either creating more shows or finding speakers.
We have already decided to highlight Healthy Humans because we have two or three activities that fit into the theme so with another one or two we should have a good section broadening our range.
It looks like we will be creating a special space for story telling - watch this space for more information and photos once we get going on it! I think we will be very creative.
I am also going to make the historical/object handling ideas actually happen. We have been working on this for a while but with a new deadline to meet we will get going next week.
Apart from that I think we just need to tweak the programme details and highlight Murder at the Manor because it is such a good session and schools haven't really picked it up yet.
So back to work on Monday and put all these ideas into practice.

marathon end in site!

It has been a very long three weeks of holiday activities covering all the Easter holidays and this weekend's mega holiday for the Royal wedding and May day holiday.
Counting the extra sessions booked by holiday clubs etc we will have done 35 Sugar and Spice shows plus 52 Sweet temptations sessions - a marathon by anyone's standards.
Well done to all the team for an heroic effort. We have looked at the science of chocolate, candy floss, jelly beans, rice crispies, popcorn and sherbet. We have made so many crispie cakes we could sink the centre and I am now thinking about running away with the fair, I am so good at making candy floss!
Hopefully everyone who has been to a session has enjoyed themselves and learnt a little more about science.
The vagaries of the English education system mean that we have only 4 weeks until the next holiday!So in the words of Monty Python ....now for something completely different....we will be Up Close and Personal - thinking about costmetics, washing and bodily functions! What a job!