DAVE THOMPSON'S

Cheshire Schools Science

A few years ago my friend,Roger Gittins and I got together via Knutsford Scibar and put together some science education days mainly for year 5 and 6 children. The days take the form of presentations on the topics , are very interactive, and are followed by a practical exercise to reinforce the learning.

At present we can offer, as standard, three different days, but are prepared to consider other topics

SPACE interesting objects and why the sun shines

ELECTRICITY from electrons to power stations

ENERGY including steam engines ,nuclear fission and nuclear fusion

The only charge we make is for materials used which amounts to about £30 for the Space Day and £175 for the Electricity day.We normally do two classes combined ie around 50-60 children

Below you will see a short write up of The Science Festival day which ,with the help of Knutsford Scibarians and Manor Park staff we ran for Manor Park school & Nursery plus some other events we have supported.

If you would like to use us in your school,

RING Dave Thompson on 07768-355-814 or

e-mail dave @davetweb.co.uk.

See other web pages - Click above to see more details of the particular school science days

KNUTSFORD SCIBAR - "SCIENCE FESTIVAL"

MANOR PARK SCHOOL & nursery

April 2009

After Dave Thompson visited MANOR PARK SCHOOL & nursery at their request, following an article in The Knutsford Guardian covering his work with schools, it was decided to put on a Science Festival for the whole school encompassing 3 year old to 11 year old children for a whole day to interest them in Science - A daunting task -

Volunteers were solicited mainly from the Knutsford Scibar and familiesand lectures were set up for each set of children covering , "Earth History & Tectonic Plates , where Graham Barlow using a theme of travellers in time, introduced to the children the concept of deep time . Practical demonstrations, involving a lava lamp and cardboard continental boundaries, introduced the children to the concept of plate tectonics and continental drift" , Ged Thompson covered "Forces for 4-6 year olds incorporating Pirate Galleon races across a paddling pool to Treasure island (see below Treasure Island with its creator Scibarian Roger Gittins), which itself incorporated a smoking volcano and dinosaurs." , Brian Thompson demonstrated "Magnetism - It's a kinda Magic" featuring levitating magnets floating compasses and many other electrical and magnetic phenomena" , "Interesting objects in Space" were discussed by Scibarian Dave Thompson followed by the making and launching of Alka Seltzer powered rockets at many of the Space objects discussed in class" , " Demonstrations by STFC -Daresbury Labs making banana hammers and ice cream in class using Liquid Nitrogen at minus 196 degrees C" , The top classes had had a lecture from Scibarian Roger Gittins two weeks earlier about how to make pop bottle rockets which could carry a raw egg over 100 m and land it unbroken.The children then made rockets at home which were brought to school to be launched. I am pleased to report that of the five rockets launched containing raw eggs ALL FIVE SURVIVED the experience.

Classes were combined into composite classes of about 50 children and each class had one period during the day to visit a Science Fair that was set up in The Hall. The Science Fair consisted of number of stalls for the children to visit :- ... "A Planetarium from STFC- Daresbury Labs into whose dark igloo the children could crawl to see projections of the constellations of stars in the night sky".... "A Moon rocket stall, run by David & Christine Skinner, from which the children fired rockets at the moon, indoors, over the heads of the crowd ."... " A Visual Illusions stall incorporating Dragons that the children could make, whose eyes follow you as you move,(see below right) and a pair of parabolic mirrors together with a quiz about many other optical illusions" was run by Scibarian Kevin Griffiths ..."An Energy stall, managed by Roger Hall, incorporated working steam engines , steam powered boats and rubber powered boats chugging across a large paddling pool as well as a single coil electric motors and a hand built working steam powered boat made from just a coke can, two straws and a polystyrene chicken tray from Tescos.Oh and a small candle"... "A stall, run by Jon & Jane Cartmel,where the children could build paper aeroplanes and fly them to compete for model plane prizes whilst examining the properties of the Mobius Strip". The stall managers were all ably supported by our willing volunteers.

The end result was a very exciting day for the children( and the teachers and volunteers) which culminated in the children showing their parents round the whole Science Festival when they came to pick them up at the end of the school day.

"CATALYST Saturday Science Club" Jan 09

Dave Thompson and Roger Gittins visited Catalyst Chemical Museum's Saturday Science Club to give a talk to the children on the history of Rockets and the principles of making rockets.This was followed by a rocket building session by the children some of whom had brought with them rockets designed and built at home . The rockets were examined and changes in design were made ,where necessary, usually in order to the fit to the launcher. On a freezing cold day the group then went outside to see if any rockets could be fired across the Mersey . With the wind against them this was an difficult task but all the rockets took to the air. The only one not complaining about the temperature was Roger who kept warm by pumpimng up the rockets before launch. a super range of rockets were fired with strikingly different design features, including a pilot on a parachute , cylindrical fins and one seemingly based on the AVRO Vulcan V- Bomber. The raw egg was also launched and amazingly SURVIVED !!!

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.....Interesting designs.......................... Look the egg's still alive!!...................... I think mine's best

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......................................................................................Thar she blows

"Daresbury Science Festival " Exhibition at Daresbury Labs 2008

Knutsford SciBAr went to set up stall at Daresbury Science Festival where in a sizeable area we ran stalls on Dragon Visual illusions and gave away dragons for the kids to make at home , Chaotic Pendulums -which caused much surprise and amusement, a stall to promote the planned new SciBArs at Didsbury and Chester and enthusiastically manned by Beatrice Downing and our "piece de resistance" the " Rocket Trip to the Moon", designed and created by our resident engineer Roger Gittins. You can see some of the different reactions to our VERY LOUD rockets in the pictures. The stalls were kept very busy and our SciBArian volunteers had a very enjoyable day as did the children . The show overall had some superb stalls exhibiting lots of interesting Science experiments including the ever popular lecture /experiment called "Exploding Custard".The team consisted of Roger Gittins , Terry & Kevin Griffiths , John and Jane Cartmel, Graham Barlow, Beatrice Downing and myself
..........................................................................................Hey! that rockets going to explode
...This looks like Fun ...

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........This looks Interesting!.....