One of the biggest highlights this term was British Science Week, during which our students got to experiment with lava lamps, toothpaste, inflating balloons and much more!

Below are some examples of our young scientists’ great work:

Moving Liquid Art

The Year 1 scientists experimented with moving liquid art.

They added food colouring to a plate of milk and then, using a cotton bud, added some washing-up liquid. We discussed how milk has fat in it and the food colouring floats on-top. When the soap was added, the fat bonds were broken which allowed the milk to move with the food colouring to make beautiful moving liquid art!

Erupting Lava Lamps

The Year 2/3 children had a great time being chemists and making their very own erupting lava lamps. We discussed the density of water and oil and then the children made predictions about what would happen when the two liquids were mixed together.

After adding food colouring, the final step was to add an antacid tablet. The antacid reacted with the water to make tiny bubbles of carbon dioxide. These bubbles attached themselves to the coloured water and floated to the top. Wow!

Incredible Inflating Balloons

The curious scientists in Years 4/5 experimented to see if increasing the amount of bicarbonate of soda added to the vinegar would have an effect. Before conducting the experiment, they each formed a hypothesis, utilising existing knowledge.

To their delight, they found that increasing the amount of bicarb created a greater reaction and in turn produced more carbon dioxide, which caused the balloon to inflate.

Elephant Toothpaste

Our elephant toothpaste practical helped the senior students to illustrate how chemical reactions between substances can transform them into completely different ones, sometimes with quite dramatic effects!

Students also enjoyed exploring the scale of the universe online, which helped show them the relative size of different objects.