Hatful of Science

A half-term trip for science and Smiths' fans

This month the Manchester Science Festival enters its fifth year. If you are around the North West, and looking for something to entertain during a probable wet half-term week, there's plenty on offer in the festival's broad schedule.

One event that caught my eye is a collaboration between Salford Lads Club and the University of Salford. The Club building has been offering sports facilities for young people since 1903, and on Thursday October 27th it will play host to 'A Hatful of Science' - an afternoon of science activities including measuring the force of a boxing punch, the physics of snooker, and the science of sound.

Salford Lads Club is memorable to a generation as the backdrop for The Smiths' third album, released in 1986. For my father, a teenager growing up in the 1950s, it was the place he went to play table-tennis. At that time there was a public library just a few doors down from the Lads Club; sadly this library is no longer present, but if you happen to visit a 'Hatful of Science' this October, we've highlighted a selection of eLibrary resources below that explore the science of sound and music - examples that could be used to follow-up your visit, either at home, or back in school.

Maybe not a Smiths' fan? Science centres across the UK will be offering a great programme of events for half-term - let us know your favourites!

Selected eLibrary resources

SimSound In a simple game format, students use a freely available recording software package to interpret sound waves (age 11-16)

Sounds good! Practical activities and video use a workplace context to develop students' understanding of the properties of sound, and application of science to improve sound quality (age 14-16)

Signal generator This video for teachers demonstrates the use of a signal generator to illustrate waves and sound - frequency, amplitude and wave form can be explored using a loudspeaker and an oscilloscope (age 11-19)

Scimorph Follow Scimorph on a journey through a virtual science environment based around the curriculum topics - including sound (age 9-11)

Image credit: Jennifer Boyer, 2005