Whizz Pop Bang is a science magazine for kids, covering the key topics taught at school as part of the KS1 and KS2 primary science curriculum. To accompany the magazine, schools can subscribe to receive new science resources every month. These downloadable resources help teachers deliver accurate and engaging lessons, providing children with a deeper understanding of scientific concepts. All Whizz Pop Bang resources are tried and tested by science teachers, and kids!
A Whizz Pop Bang subscriber experimenting with nanotubes to see how carbon nanotubes behave
This month we zoom in on tiny science!
Imagine what it would be like to shrink to the size of a dot! This issue we’re doing exactly that to see how things work on a minuscule scale.
This month we’ve got loads of supercool experiments and activities to turn your mini scientists into nano-scientists! Discover how a watch works, find out all about teeny tiny pygmy marmosets and find out what it’s like to be a nanotechnologist.Meet sensational scientistRichard Feynman, who encouraged scientists to “think small”. Plus, our 10 Awesomely Amazing tiny things that live on your body, blurghhh!
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We’ve put together a list of the UK’s top science museums and found out what’s going on in February half term for kids and their families. Do you love hands-on science? Are your children always asking WHY? Go and see what’s on for science-lovers around the country! Just click on the image for each place and it’ll take you directly to the right page on the website to find out what’s going on. And don’t forget to tweet or post your #scienceiscool pics!
Oh how we love January with wet hats, missing gloves and runny noses. Whether it’s snowing outside or not, snow time like the present to start investigating the winter wonderland! With science magazine Whizz Pop Bang your kids can simulate a snowball flight, investigate the colour of snow, make their own snow globe, make a barometer, a weathervane and a rain gauge – a storm of science fun!
As well as lots of COOL experiments we look at how a freezer works, tell the story of the snowflakeand interview a Penguin Aquarist to find out what it’s like working with those adorable creatures. Kids can marvel at 10 Awesomely Amazing Extreme Weather Events, and learn about polar bears (did you know their fur isn’t actually white?) We also tell the fascinating story of the genius Albert Einstein.
Looking forward to a fun-filled year of science with you guys 🙂
Put on your hard hat for this engineering extravaganza! This month Tomorrow’s Engineers Week will be celebrating all the awesome things that engineers do which is why we’ve gone SUPER STRUCTURES mad. We talk to real engineers and find out all about their jobs, discover some of the world’s greatest animal engineers and show your kids how to build a suspension bridge with Lego and string just like the one in the photo above sent in by one of our readers. What a happy mini engineer!
With kids science magazine Whizz Pop Bang just imagine what your kids may one day discover…
Not a subscriber? Don’t worry, you can subscribe here or if you’d like to just buy a single copy of this issue go to our back issue shop.
In the current issue of Whizz Pop Bang (October, issue 15) we take a look at light and colour. We ask what gives things their colour? What are invisible colours? Do you know why flamingoes are pink? For lots of questions (and answers!) about colour and loads of cool experiments, order a copy of Whizz Pop Bang science magazine for kids click here.
Do your kids know about the northern lights? The northern lights are one of nature’s most impressive spectacles. These stunning coloured light displays are produced when particles from the Sun crash into the Earth’s atmosphere, transferring their energy into light. Also called aurora, these magnificent dancing lights are common near the North and South Poles.
We came across this eerie yet beautiful video of humpback whales swimming under the northern lights in Norway…
Off the coast of Kvaløya island in Tromsø, humpback whales swim beneath the northern lights. The brief scene was captured by Norwegian photographer Harald Albrigtsen for Norwegian public television (NRK). Cue the aurora science from NASA:
“The typical “northern lights,” or aurora borealis, are caused by collisions between fast-moving electrons and the oxygen and nitrogen in Earth’s upper atmosphere. The electrons – which come from the magnetosphere, the region of space controlled by Earth’s magnetic field – transfer energy to the oxygen and nitrogen gases, making them “excited.” As they “calm down” and return to their normal state, they emit photons, small bursts of energy in the form of light.
When a large number of these collisions occur, the oxygen and nitrogen can emit enough light for the eye to detect. This ghostly light will produce the dance of colors in the night sky we call the aurora. Most of the light comes from altitudes between 60 and 200 miles. Since the aurora is much dimmer than sunlight, it cannot be seen from the ground in the daytime.
The color of the aurora depends on which gas – oxygen or nitrogen – is being excited by the electrons, and on how excited it becomes. Oxygen emits either a greenish-yellow light (the most familiar color of the aurora) or a red light; nitrogen generally gives off a blue light. The blending of these colors can also produce purples, pinks, and white.”
(Above video and text from The Kids Should See This website)
Did you know… Astronauts in the International Space Station get to see a side view of the aurora because they are both roughly the same distance from the Earth
AWESOME FACT: Aurora also occur on other planets, including Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune
SO many reasons to be excited about our awesomely amazing dazzlingly bright October issue of Whizz Pop Bang! This month our awesome science magazine for kids is entitled ‘COLOUR EXPLOSION! A rainbow of science’. Here’s a quick low-down on what you can find inside… MISSION TO JUPITER * INTERVIEW WITH A BUBBLE SCIENTIST * SCIENCE OF LIGHT & COLOUR * CHAMELEONS * ELECTROMAGNETIC WAVES * REFRACTION plus NINE EXPERIMENTS AND OUR NEW PULL OUT MAKE & DO SECTION!
Kids you can experiment and make your own fabric dyes using spices, onion skins and beetroot (we suggest wearing an apron for this one), have yummy fun experimenting with sweets to make colourful patterns. Have a go at making colour changing art, and wow your friends and family with your handmade iridescent paper. There’s loads to make and do in this issue so what are you waiting for?!?
Why have a grey boring old half term, when you could have a whole kaleidoscope of science to brighten up your house! Buy your copy now: www.whizzpopbang.com/subscribe
For parents with a background in Science & Technology, talking to our children about how the world works; taking them to science museums; even doing a few backyard & kitchen experiments, all comes very naturally. Many primary school children, though, don’t get these experiences. Primary school teachers need to have a broad knowledge base, but often don’t have a STEM background and can find these subjects more challenging to teach. Even teachers with an interest in and enthusiasm for science and technology, find that the demands of the curriculum, with its focus on literacy and numeracy, leave little time for other subjects.
This is an area where schools can really benefit from parental expertise. We know of instances where parent governors have been given a responsibility for improving science provision across the school or are running after-school STEM/code clubs. We would like it to be much more common for parents with a STEM background to get involved in even more hands-on ways. To this end, we have founded the School Gate SET, an online community for parents who want to help with STEM in their children’s schools: sharing ideas and inspiring other to get involved.
The project is the brainchild of Kate Bellingham, STEM ambassador, former Tomorrow’s World presenter, and long-time champion for women’s opportunities in engineering. When her children were young and she was working part-time, she began to help out at their school in the usual ways: listening to readers and chaperoning school trips. Soon, though, she began to wonder if her skills could be put to better use. She began helping in maths lessons and, eventually, running an after-school STEM club. She really enjoyed seeing how excited and inspired the children were and, upon hearing one of the girls exclaim “That’s Emily’s Mum, she’s an Engineer!”, felt that she was also challenging some stereotypes along the way.
More recently, School Gate SET parents got involved with British Science Week: you can read about one of the activity days here. Our next “call to action” is for “Tomorrow’s Engineers Week” (November 2016) and we will be running some free training workshops for parent volunteers who would like to deliver a supporting activity. Please get in touch (or see here) for more information.
So, if you have a passion for STEM and would like to inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers, have a chat with the Headteacher or Science co-ordinator at your children’s school about how you could begin to contribute. For activity ideas, check out our blog and Facebook page. If you have questions about how to get started, tweet or e-mail us and we’ll be happy to share our experiences. If you are a teacher who would like to encourage parental involvement, get in touch and we can provide a flier to send out to parents.
Notes about the funding for School Gate SET initiative:
The funding is from the Royal Academy of Engineering’s “Ingenious” program which supports novel ways of getting engineers involved in outreach activities. We are looking for engineers who are on a career break after having children (so, mostly women) and are in danger of being lost from the profession altogether. The funding is to run workshops on how to deliver an engineering activity to school-children, to (re)build confidence and to help engineers think about what they want to do next in their careers. We hope that this will help with the STEM “pipeline problem”, both by showing primary school children some “non-stereotypical” scientists and engineers as well as showing women they can get back into a STEM career after a break.
Our over-arching goal for the School Gate SET is to get more parents and carers from all STEM backgrounds helping out in schools and contributing ideas, advice and support to our online network.
Did you know Whizz Pop Bang whizzes around the world to kids in many different countries? Yep, we have readers in Australia, America, Germany, New Zealand, Holland and Dubai (please let us know if you read it in another country and we’ve missed you out!). Kids learning English as a second language love reading Whizz Pop Bang because it’s fun and easy to read. Expat kids love reading it because it’s not easy to get hold of English magazines in some countries.
Now what’s all this about crickets in pasta? Well here at Whizz Pop Bang we actively encourage kids to be open-minded and to try new things, and with the need to find more sustainable sources of protein to feed our growing population, we’ve been giving kids the opportunity to try eating insects. Check out these super mini scientists at a school in Dubai trying a food of the future – cricket pasta!
Thumbs up from this student and her teacher 🙂
Three thumbs up and one sideways, pretty good then boys!
“Let’s try it together, ready? One, two…” They tasted it and liked it, deciding it really wasn’t that different to normal pasta.
Cricket pasta taste testers, everyone loved the experience!
Years 5 and 6 cautiously trying the pasta, yet all proud of themselves for trying something new.
Heads down, serious business… verdict was a yes!
Teachers giving it a go!
Not sure at first, but then a big thumbs up from this student!
“Ummm, well it’s kind of weird eating insects…”
Proud cricket pasta taster with her Whizz Pop Bang sticker 🙂
All smiles for this student and her Mum
“Crickets? I’ve eaten them whole!”
Made by Bugsolutely in Thailand, cricket pasta is a genius way to include sustainable protein in a quick and easy meal. Cook it and serve with pesto, with a tomato sauce or a creamy sauce and you have a nutritious meal and one that doesn’t require any additional protein.
Were your kids involved in a Whizz Pop Bang cricket pasta tasting? Let us know what they thought in the comments box below, or email hello@whizzpopbang.com. If you’d like to subscribe to Whizz Pop Bang THE awesome science magazine for kids just click here.
What’s On in September: THE BRITISH SCIENCE FESTIVAL
Saturday 10th and Sunday 11th September, at the National Waterfront Museum, Swansea.
Now this sounds like loads of fun; 2 days of Roald Dahl-themed hands-on science fun for all the family, what could be better?! Events include an Astronaut Bootcamp, 3D Space Show, Marine explorers, Splendiferous Science Show, Sealife Safari and LOADS more! They’ve even got a whizzpopping Roald Dahl science show with CBBC’s science communicator Jon Chase, pretty awesome huh?
Here’s what they say on the website: “We’re celebrating Roald Dahl’s centenary with a scientific take on his books. CBBC’s Jon Chase reveals the Splendiferous Science in Dahl’s tales and we’ve left a trail of golden tickets for you to follow and claim a prize… keep your gogglers peeled for everything from frightswiping Gremlins to scrumdiddlyumptious chocolate!
We’ve also teamed up with the Marina Market to talk about food. You can take a taste test, learn how to keep yourself healthy, and explore the chemistry in your kitchen. There are even some insects for you to eat… if you’re brave enough!
‘Marine Explorers’ venture out and investigate everything that lives in the sea. Get onto Swansea University’s research boat ‘Noctiluca’, which is moored on the quay at the Waterfront Museum. You can control an underwater robot, explore scientific survey equipment, observe underwater video footage and be captain of the ship.”
Don’t forget to share your photos with us on Facebook or Instagram and tell us all about the best bits! #BSF16
10th and 11th September National Waterfront Museum and surrounding venues including Swansea Museum and the Dylan Thomas Theatre Open 11am-4pm FREE!
This month we have not one but two competitions for your budding scientists to enter! Up for grabs we have three copies of Robert Winston’s HOME LAB EXPERIMENTS BOOK and five John Adams Trading Co FORENSIC SCIENCE KITS!!!
What are you waiting for kids, open issue 13 of Whizz Pop Bang and get cracking. Enter before 5th September.
