This super simple flower sensory tray is a brilliant way to introduce even very small children to the basic parts of a flower, and also a great fine motor control activity as the petals are quite hard to pick up with the tweezers. This activity is also a great alternative to a flower dissection. If you…
Have you ever wondered how water is transported up the stem of a plant against gravity? This transportation process is called transpiration. You can demonstrate transpiration easily with simple transpiration experiments. You might also like our plant respiration and photosynthesis investigations. Transport in Plants – Transpiration Transpiration occurs when water on the surface of leaf…
My little 5 year old will be doing her Year 1 phonics test later this year so we’ve been trying to practise a little bit at home to support her learning at school. She was so excited when I pulled out this filter paper phonics activity, that I felt a bit guilty for not having done…
Plants don’t always seem like the most interesting of topics to study, but there are lots of brilliant, hands-on plant science experiments and activities which are fantastic for learning about different types of flowers, trees and plants and the conditions they need to grow. I also have a free booklet at the bottom of the post containing…
Here at Science Sparks, we adore LEGO®. I think it is just the most amazing, flexible resource. We’ve used it to learn about bar charts, make magnet mazes, and even built a balloon powered LEGO® car.  LEGO® is also fantastic for helping develop fine motor skills, learning to follow instructions, encouraging creativity, and much more. When…
These easy squeezy bottle rockets are great fun to make and a brilliant introduction to forces, in particular Newton’s Third Law of motion, which sounds complicated but actually makes a lot of sense. What is Newton’s Third Law? For every action there is always an opposite and equal reaction. Think about a space rocket taking…
Magnets are perfect for creative science activities. We made magnet powered cars by attaching magnets to the top of a small toy car with moldable glue. Easy Magnetic Cars To make a magnet-powered car, you’ll need a toy car, glue and two magnets. Choose a car you don’t mind damaging, as the glue and magnet…
WeDo 2.0 from LEGO Education is a fantastic new learning tool designed to introduce children to robotics, engineering, programming and general STEM teaching through a robot-based learning system. The basic package comes with 280 building elements, a Bluetooth Low Energy-based hub which connects to a motor, as well as motion and tilt sensors. LEGO WeDo 2.0 allows children to…
My first job after graduating was as a programmer for a bank, I had very little knowledge of programming, it is definitely not one of my innate skills but my scientific background had given me a great grounding by helping me develop logical thinking, attention to detail, abstract thinking and patience, which are all skills needed to code….
Hand and finger strength is very important for holding a pencil correctly, fastening clothes and other fine motor skills. Did you know there are over 30 muscles in the hand and forearm? Muscles in the forearm control elbow, wrist and finger movements while the much smaller muscles in the palm of the hand control smaller…
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