Workshop Level: Primary

Duration: 1 Hour

A trip through time and space, disguised as a children’s party game – explore the vastness of space as you zoom in to earth.

This interactive event is run in your school on demand for up to 60 pupils and can be tailored to any age groups between years 3–6. Secondary schools have sometimes run this event for the feeder school open day events. A school hall or large space where the pupils can sit around one big circle (as in the children’s game) is required.

The purpose is to enthuse pupils about science and link the popular topic of astronomy directly to science. To start the basic rules of pass the parcel are recapped, the music starts and we begin. As each layer of wrapping in removed, the pupils are taken on an interactive tour of that topic. Decreasing in size, the topics are The Universe, The Galaxy, The Solar System, Planet Earth, Matter, The Atom, and Particles. Some topics will be unfamiliar to different classes, but this is dealt with as all topics are thoroughly explained and illustrated through demonstrations and examples.

Pupils thoroughly enjoy this event and sometimes surprise their own teachers with their knowledge of the night sky! The high level of interactivity motivates the pupils to share their knowledge and they leave comfortable with a range of new scientific vocabulary.

Workshop Level: Primary

Duration: 1 Hour

This interactive session can be adapted for any of years 3, 4, or 5 and is run on demand in your school or here on campus. The ideal audience size is 30. 

To deliver the activity in school, we require a reasonably sized classroom with a table at the front or a hall where everyone in the audience can see clearly.  Audiovisual facilities would be useful for the introduction, but is not a requirement.

The purpose of this event is to enthuse pupils about science and in particular physics. The session is designed to be lots of fun, with a sustained interaction between audience and presenters. The talk starts by focussing on how science and scientists are perceived; ideally any negative stereotypes will be dispelled by the end of the lecture.

The science covered focuses on forces, and how bodies behave when forces are balanced, and unbalanced. These fundamental concepts are explored in an interactive way; participants create their own “balloon kebabs”, and explore “super balloons”, as well as partaking in hands-on activities to demonstrate how our own bodies balance the forces acting upon us all the time. At the end, the basic principles are wrapped up with an exciting blast-off session.

This event is usually delivered by two students/staff which allows us to display the collaborative nature of science and the individual personalities and styles of those who study in physics.