Last week we tried a simple chemical reaction to investigate alka seltzer reacting with water. We’ve also observed the reaction between baking soda and vinegar before, both of which are very safe for even young children to observe. Taking this a step further we’re going to investigate how to speed up a chemical reaction, while still keeping things…
Did you know play dough conducts electricity and can be used to make circuits? Using play dough is a fun and very low cost way to learn about circuits and electricity. Â In our circuit we use a component called a Light Emitting Diode (LED). Â These are very easy and inexpensive to purchase from online stores…
Computer code is everywhere: in electronic games, this website, and tills at the supermarket. Even though you can’t see it, computer code is a huge part of our world, so it is important to introduce children to the key principles of computer science from a young age. The actual concepts involved in computer coding aim…
One of the activities my children ask to do over and over again is our jumping frogs, which are a great way to learn about static electricity. Inspired by Inspiration Laboratories moving ghost, we made jumping ghosts instead of frogs. To make it more of an investigation rather than a demonstration, we tried to make…
These air pressure experiments are great fun and fantastic demonstrations of a fascinating force. What is air pressure? Air pressure is the weight of the atmosphere pressing down on Earth. We measure air pressure using a barometer. Have you ever climbed a mountain or visited an area at a high altitude and found you get…
Do you remember our lolly stick races? They are a great way to explore surface tension, but this activity demonstrating surface tension with toothpicks is even easier! The toothpicks start off in a triangle shape and then fly apart when a little washing-up liquid is added. Surface tension activity with toothpicks You’ll need Instructions Why…
This activity is great as a follow-on from our hand washing exercise and a brilliant visual way to introduce the concept of microorganisms. The idea is to observe what grows on potatoes over a period of time. We boiled the potatoes in water for 10 minutes first to destroy any microorganisms already present on the…
This was my first attempt at making a cotton reel car, and it didn’t work quite as well as I hoped and definitely didn’t look as good as I wanted, but a cotton reel car is a great little engineering project with lots of possibilities. How to Make a Cotton Reel Car I tied the elastic…
We’ve talked about respiration before when we made bread and used yeast to make the dough rise. Blowing up a balloon with yeast is another very easy experiment to demonstrate respiration in action and is quicker than making bread if you are short of time. What is respiration? Respiration is a chemical reaction which occurs…
Elasticity is the ability of an object to return to its original shape after being subjected to a force ( for example, being stretched, pulled, squashed or twisted ). Elastic objects bounce back to their original shape very quickly! What is elastic distortion? Elastic distortion is when an object returns to its original shape when…
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