Thursday 25 January 2018

OUR NEW SHOW for BRITISH SCIENCE WEEK 2018




Image of front cover of the Early Years resource packThis year BSW will be from 5th - 17th March and schools and organisations all over the country will be running special events to celebrate.
The theme is Discovery and Exploration and the amazing activity packs have just been released.
There are 3 types - early years, primary and secondary, full of ideas across the science curriculum.


You can download yours here:
https://www.britishscienceweek.org/plan-your-activities/activity-packs/

WHERE SHALL WE GO NEXT?
We have created a special new show for this year celebrating people who have explored science and engineering and have discovered amazing new materials or inventions that affect our everyday lives. We have been doing plenty of research ourselves especially looking for inventions by women often gone unsung.
For example did you know that a woman invented and patented the first windscreen wiper?
Mary Anderson inventor of the windcsreen wiper
 And another women built on that invention by automating it.

We will be telling the story of a rainy day through these and other inventions such as hydrochromic inks ( we have an wonderful colour chage umbrella)

Volunteers will be able to try on our bullet proof vest because Kevlar is another invention by a woman.
Stephanie Kwolek invented  Kevlar while working at DuPont


But it isn't all about the girls - we look at some other smart materials especially super absorbent polymers in  nappies, instant snow and hydrogel balls.

In the activity packs there is an experiment to devise a nappy for an astronaut. We have been using this idea for a long time in our polymers workshop which we have updated to link with the new show. We look at super absorbent polymers such as sodium polyacrylate, thermo moulding polymers, biodegradable polymers and link to the citizen science project The Plastic Tide which you can find here:
https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/theplastictide/the-plastic-tide



We are really pleased with this new show and depending on how well it goes during science week we may incorporate it into our programme on a permanent basis.

Last year we ran a special half price offer for primary schools to encourage them to get involved in BSW. It was a storming success so we have done it again.
There are actually only 5 school days in BSW so we have stretched the dates to include the week before and after so any primary school wanting to book us for this show can have it for half price ( plus travel costs)
The actual BSW week is fully booked but we do have space in the week before and after - they are going quickly of course - so any school wanting to book us needs to get in now!




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