Props too : Mud. Clementines. Stevie the cat. All massively useful in science lessons and more likely to be found in my house than at school.
We declared this week science week because Ministry of Science were at our local theatre. We were really lucky to get front row seats; they promised explosions and explosions were what we got!
Without liquid nitrogen, a human cannon and a cannister of methane we didn't stand much chance of recreating Mike & Emma's fabulous experiments so I did the next best thing and a had a trawl of the internet for ideas.
I found some amazing sites which are share-worthy. Big #SO (shout out to the cool twitter peeps among us. Hell yeah) to ScienceBob.com & FrugalFun4Boys.com
A whole bundle of fantastic ideas suitable for all ages and stages. I'm gushing about both sites because they both have genuinely doable ideas - they suggest demonstrations and experiments that you can do right now (go on, what are you waiting for?!) because you have the necessary junk in your cupboards.
First up - make your own lava lamp from Science Bob, who also provides printable PDFs with the instructions and science bit, if like me, GCSE science is a distant and painful memory.
Pretty awesome! We decided to lid it and watch the pressure build up so that we could have a bit of a chat about the behaviour of particles in solids/liquids/gases. Great terminology in this too - effervescent, pipette, pressure, funnel .. and a cheeky bit of measuring, for good measure.
The reaction went on for a long time as (like the bubbles) we did get overexcited and use about 5 big fizzy VitC tablets so we had plenty of time to shine a torch through the bottom and enjoy our creation 60s style.
I'd have loved to make another and test it out in the dark but it uses nearly a litre of vegetable oil and even my cupboard has limits.
