Wikid Science – how I make mine better

Practical work.  That’s the main method.  The more the better.  Science is a practical subject and you learn best by doing and making sense of what you have seen.  I like to shoehorn any practical work in that helps students grasp a topic – the more the better. This lesson in the Pyrotechnics sequence had …

Healthy Schools day – burning crisps

I was tasked with the job of running a session with a health related theme.   I decided to compare the energy in different crisps, with the primary objective being purely to demonstrate what an good source of energy they are. The photographs show 2.5g of various crisps being burnt under 20 cm3 of water.  Whilst …

Magnetic field lines – no mess!

I bought these last year – handy for seeing magnetic field lines without messy iron filings. And while you are on the topic of magnetism,  the floating paperclip never fails to engage students of all ability.

Design an alien

We had a whole school competition in which pupils had to design an alien that could appear on Doctor Who.  Pupils of all ages and abilities took part, some submitting multiple entries with lots of detail and information about their aliens, friendly or hostile.I hope you are as impressed by the drawings and imagination of …

Whoosh Bottle

Demonstrate combustion with a bang!  Simply vaporise 5ml acetone in a plastic water cooler bottle. Light carefully! Make sure you carry out a full risk assessment (and that you have practiced a few times before you do it in front of the children).  I’ve done this several times – I have blown the bottom off …