My 7 year old loves patterns and symmetry. When he builds a LEGO or DUPLO house they always follow either a pattern or are symmetrical. I think symmetry appeals to his mathematical brain. Today we’re sharing lots of fun ways to learn about symmetry, which might sound boring but is actually fascinating. Did you know…
Here at Science Sparks, we love LEGO®. My children play with LEGO® or DUPLO® every day, and it’s been fantastic for helping them develop fine motor control and logic skills and for learning to read and understand instructions. We use LEGO® for building, making up imaginative stories, and, of course, for experiments and investigations. These…
This is a fun summer twist on sensory play with Oobleck. I simply added a small amount of kool-aid mixed with water to my goo (cornflour ( cornstarch ) and water), then carefully poured the mixture into shaped ice cube trays before leaving in the freezer for a few hours. The frozen kool-aid oobleck slipped out of…
We scoot to school every day. Our journey takes us along a lovely tree-lined tarmac path, uphill on the way to school and downhill on the way back. Over the last few months, the kids have made lots of observations about the ease ( or difficulty ) of scooting without realising the science behind it….
I spotted this brilliant challenge from National Geographic yesterday. My 7 year old was desperate to give it a go, even with the short timescale and I think he did a pretty good job. We sat down together and discussed the design process, which is quite similar to how he has planned projects in the…
We’ve talked about properties of materials before when we investigated how waterproof materials are or how strong they are, we’ve even organised different objects by the material they’re made from by looking at the properties of those materials. Today we’re going to explore how some materials are better at absorbing sound than others. Sound Investigation…
Outspiration is a brand new mobile application from AkzoNobel for the Apple iPhone. The aim of the app is to motivate and inspire you to make the most of your outdoor space, by helping you get past obstacles such as the weather and worries about a lack of DIY knowledge. Features of the Outspiration app….
My two little girls love nothing more than sitting in the garden talking to their flowers and looking for bugs. Both carefully pick up worms or let ladybirds and spiders walk over their hands, they don’t seem squeamish at all. The new GeoSafari Jr sets from Learning Resources are perfect for them and have kept them…
Over the Easter holidays we were invited to watch The Energy Show at the Science Museum. The show promised excitement, explosions and loud bangs. It did not disappoint. The acting was brilliant, and the story kept all three of my children engaged throughout. Methane bubbles were set alight to make fireballs, flowers frozen using liquid…
This fun egg rolling activity kept my children occupied for hours. We recorded how long it took boiled eggs to roll down our slide and then wrapped them in different materials to see if that affected their speed. Younger children will just enjoy rolling the eggs, but for older children, you can spend time planning…
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