Concrete Without Quarries
This practical activity, from the Biomimicry 3.8 Institute, allows students to explore how nature creates calcium carbonate, a compound needed to manufacture cement, at ambient temperatures and using abundant, readily available raw materials. The cement used in concrete is manufactured from calcium carbonate, which is extracted from…
Selenia in Escaping From Dinosaurs
Learn about the properties of solids, liquids and gases in this colourful comic aimed at students in Key Stage Two. Written to promote enquiry skills, it contains a linked investigation which focuses on planning and evaluating evidence when investigating how to create the best geyser. This comic which has been produced by the…
Selenia: Visiting Dinosaurs
Learn about the properties of materials in this colourful comic aimed at students in Key Stage Two. Written to promote enquiry skills in a context, it focuses on making careful observations when carrying out an investigation testing the hardness of materials. This comic which has been produced by the University of the West of…
Selenia and the Smelly Lunchtime
Learn about the properties of gases in this colourful comic aimed at Key Stage Two. Written to promote scientific enquiry, it contains a linked investigation which focuses on how to plan and carry out an investigation when considering which materials are good at stopping leaks. This comic, produced by the University of the West…
Selenia: Chase Through Wing City
Learn about the properties of materials and changing state in this colourful comic aimed at students in Key Stage Two. Written to promote enquiry skills, it contains a linked investigation which focuses on planning and recording when finding out how to make the best glue. This comic, produced by the University of the West of…
Selenia and the Crazy Football Game
Learn about the cooling down of liquids and thermal insulators in this colourful comic aimed at students in Key Stage Two. Written to promote enquiry skills in a context, it focuses on making predictions before carrying out an investigation on how quickly a hot liquid cools down. This comic, produced by the University of the…
The Chemedian: Starting Secondary School
This resource contains a colourful comic, aimed at Key Stage Two, where children learn about the properties of materials and then design an investigation on dissolving. It promotes enquiry skills in a context, looking at how to create a fair test by changing one variable to see how it affects the rate that salt dissolves in water.…
Robert Smyth Academy
The chemistry of UV reactive beads provides activities from Key Stage Two to Post-16, using photochromic beads. The beads can be used to investigate the effect of temperature on the rates of reaction, where the beads are returned to their normal colour. At Post-16 level, the activation energy/enthalpy can be calculated using the…
Magic Gas
Simon Quinnell, from the National Science Learning Centre, demonstrates the properties of gases in this surprising Christmas table experiment. He drops an effervescent digestion tablet into a wine glass containing some water to generate carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide is heavier than air, and can be poured over a candle flame.…
Jumping Candle Flame
Simon Quinnell, from the National Science Learning Centre, shows how to carry out some ‘magic’ at the Christmas dinner table using a candle and a match. After letting the candle burn for a minute, Simon blows the flame out so that the smoke continues to rise above it. Then when a match is placed near the wick, the…
Jelly Liquidiser
In this Christmas table experiment, Simon Quinnell, from the National Science Learning Centre, demonstrates why pineapple should not be added to jelly. When he adds pineapple to a bowl of jelly, the jelly liquefies due to the action of an enzyme in the fruit which breaks down the gelatin. This is an example of a defence…
Plastic from Milk
Produced by Solar Spark, this activity allows students to make their own plastic from vinegar and milk. Milk contains casein in a form that is soluble in water. Making the milk acidic by adding vinegar makes the casein insoluble so the milk separates into a solid and a liquid known as curds and whey. Removing the water by filtering…
Magic Dye
This activity, produced by Solar Spark, uses "magic dye", a mixture of three different dye molecules. The mixture contains a yellow disperse dye, a direct blue dye and an acid red dye. When a fabric is put into the mixture, the dyes only attach to the types of fabrics they can bond well with. For example, the blue and yellow…
Demonstrations for the Christmas Dinner Table
In this Science Learning Centre video, Simon Quinnell demonstrates four experiments, with the theme of Christmas, that teachers can do in the school laboratory. These are: • Tea bag convection - see how a burning teabag mysteriously rises on convection currents in the air around it. • The candle demonstration - generate…
Practical Science
Produced by LSIS, this interactive resource aims to support classroom practitioners in improving the quality of learning in practical science sessions. It is not a set of suggested practical activities to use in the classroom. Instead, it provides a framework for clarifying and achieving learning outcomes through engaging practical…