Working Science

Ideal for learning about how science is used in the cosmetics industry, this workshop is suitable for Years 2 - 6. We will provide your pupils with the equipment and know how to make uniquely perfumed bath-bombs and bottles of bubble-bath. Whilst making them, your pupils will be learning about how chemistry is used to mix perfumes and other bathroom and beauty products. Each pupil will take home the products they make.

Suitable for Years 2 - 6, this workshop includes activities which will explain the structures of solids, liquids & gases.  We will turn a solid to a liquid, a gas to a liquid and a solid to a gas.  To demonstrate these changes we will use a smoke machine and materials including water, dry-ice, chocolate & ice-cream!

Pupils will explore the difference between chemical & physical reactions, making slime from two different materials.  They will analyse a variety of household chemicals and drinks to find their acidity or alkalinity, discover how acids can be used to create electricity and how chemical reactions can create large forces and launch rockets.

Your pupils will handle fossils of ammonites, trilobites & belamites, and make plaster casts of imprint fossils in order to see them clearly.  They will map Darwin's journey of discovery and explore the evolution of whales & humans, comparing changes in the shapes of skulls over time.  Your pupils will then be encouraged to consider them future evolution of humans. 

Ideal for supporting an environment week, this interactive workshop is suitable for Years 2 – 6.  Your pupils will generate electricity using renewable energy sources including building electricity generating windmills, investigating solar panels and making electricity from potatoes or citrus fruits.  We will discuss the pros and cons of current electricity generation techniques and alternative environmentally friendly methods.

Suitable for Years 3 – 6, this workshop allows children to experiment with different types of forces, such as air pressure, gravity and friction (and as an option - magnetism). They will investigate the forces needed to separate and lift items and the forces needed to launch rockets into space. Your pupils will be amazed when we launch rockets in the playground. They will measure the forces with Newton meters and record their findings for each activity on a worksheet

Suitable for Years 3 – 6, this workshop focuses on travelling into space. We show how the Space Shuttle and rockets get into orbit, and how astronauts live aboard the International Space Station. This hands-on session includes launching rockets and investigating the scientific problems that have been overcome to make launching rockets routine.

Suitable for Years 3 – 6, this workshop focuses on some of the greatest scientists in history, finding out how they made their discoveries and changed the way we understand the world around us. We will begin with Newton, Faraday and Einstein, progressing through to the inventor of the World Wide Web, Sir Tim Berners Lee.

Suitable for Years 3 – 6, this workshop enables your pupils to explore light and shadows, mirrors and reflections, colours and rainbows. They will experiment with light boxes and prisms, static electricity, circuits and will get commercial circuit boards to work! 

Suitable for Years 2 - 6, this workshop includes activities which enable your pupils to explore the properties of magnets.  They will experiment with magnetic materials, exploring the strength, attraction and replusion.  Using iron filings they will discover the magnetic field lines and look at the magnetism of the Earth.  We will provide the opportunity to investigate how magnets are used to generate electricity, and make a simple motor. 

Ideal for forming part of a school enterprise week, this workshop is suitable for Years 3 – 6. Your pupils will be given everything they need to make perfumes from essential oils using chemistry equipment and techniques. They will go on to learn how to market, promote and sell these perfumes, perhaps even generating revenue for the school! The workshop demonstrates to pupils how science, manufacturing, branding and pricing need to work together in order to develop a successful business idea, thus enabling pupils to develop, produce and market a high quality and saleable product.

"The children had a great day.  They learnt about marketing, promotion and pricing in a child friendly way.  There were lots of hands-on activities which enabled all children of all abilities to participate in.  To top it all off each child had a bottle of perfume to take home!  The feedback from both children and parents has been very positive.  Thank you Gareth!"

Linda Lauder, Class 5 Teacher, Walker Primary School.

Your pupils will handle and examine small fossils of ammonites, trilobites & belamites and will have a go at excavating fossils from plaster of Paris or sand based enclosures, identifying them just like palaeontologists.  They will pan for gold and minerals, learning how these are washed from mountains into rivers.  Your pupils will investigate the soil around the school grounds, analysing it in terms of texture & acidity or alkalinity.

Suitable for Years 3-6, this workshop allows pupils to experiment with sound and vibrations. They will develop their understanding of how sound is created and how it travels to our ears, the effects of different materials on the way sound travels and the importance of air for our hearing of sounds. We will also investigate the speed of sound and the shape of waves.

Suitable for Years 3 - 6, this workshop enables your pupils to discover the science behind the planets and stars.  We will cover the birth and death of stars, study the solar system and constellations, as well as stellar objects such as black holes and supernovae.  We extend pupils' learning through hands-on activities including investigating gravity on different planets and what the light coming from distant stars tells us.