One activity allowed the children to build a roto-copter and test it in the Exploratorium whilst pondering questions such as Why does it spin? Does it always spin in the same direction? Why doesn’t it simply just move sideways through the air?  Some children were able to make their roto-copter float by making the blades parallel to the ground, some made their roto-copters behave like a boomerang which came back to them and some made theirs land still stood up spinning for a short amount of time.

Another activity allowed the children to do some ‘cabbage chemistry’.  They had great fun mixing cabbage juice with different liquids such as lemon juice, vinegar and bicarbonate of soda to find out whether they were acid, alkaline or neutral.  If the result was red, pink or purple, it was acidic.  If the result was blue, the mixture was neutral; whereas, if the result was green or yellow, that showed an alkali.

The children also had great fun making water dispensers using bottles, balloons and straws.  They ensured that a large bottle of water was two thirds full before puncturing a hole halfway down the bottle and placing a straw into the hole.  They blew up a balloon and placed it on the top of the bottle.  The children found that when they squeezed the balloon, the air would push the water out of the straw and into a cup.

The children had lots of fun learning about pendulums.  They worked collaboratively to explore how long a pendulum swung for, taking into consideration the surface area of the card at the end, the angle that the pendulum was let go from and the effect of air resistance.

They returned to their classes having clearly enjoyed their day.