Science Magazine for kids – Whizz Pop Bang Blog

COMPETITION CLOSED: WIN Seven Small Inventions That Changed The World Books!

Posted on 1st September 2024 | by Jo at Whizz Pop Bang | 153 Comments

Do you know a small scientist who is always coming up with new inventions? They are bound to love this new book which proves that small inventions can make a huge difference to our world!

We have five copies of Small Inventions That Changed The World by Roma Agrawak and Jisu Choi to give away! Thank you to Hachette Children’s Group for providing this epic prize.

This book shines a spotlight on tiny change makers including the nail, the wheel and string. It’s hard to image how such humble objects can be significant, but this book explains how they were crucial to the development of advanced technology like spaceships and skyscrapers.

Small Inventions That Changed The World takes readers on a spectacular and intriguing journey through centuries, from the Silk Road to the International Space Station.

We’ve got five copies of this stunning and inspiring book to give away! Simply answer the question in the comments to be in with a chance.

Which of the below is a type of engineering?

A Civet
B Civil
C Cirrus

Small Inventions That Changed The World by Roma Agrawal and Jisu Choi is published by Hachette Children’s Group and is available now. RRP £16.99.

This competition closes at midnight on 30th September 2024 and is open to UK residents only. Whizz Pop Bang competition terms and conditions are here.

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Win Build Your Own Insect kits and a Whizz Pop Bang subscription

COMPETITION CLOSED! WIN a Bundle of Build Your Own Insect Kits AND a Subscription to Whizz Pop Bang Magazine!

Posted on 24th June 2024 | by Jo at Whizz Pop Bang | 2 Comments

To celebrate Insect Week 2024, we have teamed up with the wonderful people at Build Your Own to give away a bundle of all four of their insect mini-build kits and a subscription to Whizz Pop Bang magazine!

Build Your Own’s range of super-cool, eco-friendly kits are a fantastic way to bring STEM learning to life in a way that kids can get stuck into. Budding engineers can build a honey bee, ladybird, stag beetle and dragonfly with these inspiring mini kits.

Whizz Pop Bang is the awesomely amazing science magazine for kids, and our lucky winner will receive a three month subscription! Every edition is packed with experiments, activities, jokes, inspiring stories and more. It’s guaranteed to be a hit with every small dinosaur expert, keen kitchen chemist or generally curious child.

To enter, simply answer this question correctly in a comment

How many legs does a spider have?
🕸 2
🕸 5
🕸 8

Good luck!

This competition closes at midnight on Sunday 30th June 2024 and is open to UK residents only. Whizz Pop Bang competition terms and conditions are here.

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Do bumblebees play?

Posted on 28th December 2023 | by Jo at Whizz Pop Bang | Leave a Comment

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COMPETITION CLOSED – WIN Humungous Fungus by Lynne Boddy

Posted on 26th September 2023 | by Jo at Whizz Pop Bang | 74 Comments

Professor Lynne Boddy is a woodland fungi expert at Cardiff University and she told us all about her amazing career in Whizz Pop Bang 99: Fantastic Fungi.

Lynne has written a beautiful book, Humungous Fungus, an exploration of all things fungi which will amaze young readers, and open their eyes to the fungi thriving all around them and we’ve got four copies to give away!

Simply answer this question in the comments for your chance to win a book.

Which one is a part of a mushroom?
a) Gill
b) Hill
c) Spill

Good luck!

This competition closes at midnight on 31st October 2023 and is open for UK residents only. For full terms and conditions visit whizzpopbang.com/terms

Humongous Fungus, written by Lynne Boddy and illustrated by Wenjia Tang. DK, £12.99. Out Now.

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How to store a magazine collection

Posted on 18th September 2023 | by Jo at Whizz Pop Bang | Leave a Comment

Do you or your children have magazine subscriptions that you would like to store neatly? The Whizz Pop Bang magazine binder has been carefully developed to make looking after your precious magazine collection simple!

Our brief was straightforward: to find a way for our readers to make sure that their magazines would stay as good as new for a long time. Lots of binders use metal rings, which means punching holes in treasured editions, and that just didn’t feel right. Instead, our colourful binders use a traditional, non-damaging cord system.

See the Whizz Pop Band binder in the shop

This awesome magazine binder is perfect for storing a whole year’s worth of Whizz Pop Bang magazines. Inside the binder, you’ll find 12 Cordex strings (lengths of super-strong cord). Open your magazine to the middle pages, then slide it under one of the 12 strings. In a couple of minutes, you can slot 12 magazines into the binder in the order of your choice. Once secured, you can flick through your collection with ease – as if it was one giant book!

Browse Whizz Pop Bang binders

Storing your Whizz Pop Bang subscription in one of our robust binders is the ideal way to preserve it for many years, allowing readers to refer back to older issues when they suddenly become relevant again as new school topics are introduced and new personal interests are discovered.

Whizz Pop Bang is the award-winning science magazine that brings science to life for girls and boys aged six to twelve (and their parents too)!

Discover how easy it is to enjoy science at home with Whizz Pop Bang magazine. Spark your child’s imagination with lab-loads of hands-on experiments, the latest science news, tantalising puzzles and amazing facts.

Subscribe today to start your child’s adventures in discovery and to inspire the scientists of the future!

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Carl Sagan’s Golden Record

Posted on 24th August 2023 | by Jo at Whizz Pop Bang | Leave a Comment

Carl Sagan was an astronomer, planetary scientist, cosmologist, astrophysicist, professor and science communicator who was fascinated by extra-terrestrial life. You can read about him in Whizz Pop Bang 98: Aliens!

Carl was involved in American space exploration since it began in the 1950s. He put together messages that were sent into outer space in the 1970s on the Voyager Golden Record.

By NASA – Great Images in NASA Description, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6455682

Copies of the Golden Record were carried by Voyager I and Voyager II. They contained:

Messages in 55 ancient and modern languages
Sounds from Earth
Images of humans and Earth

By NASA/JPL – The Sounds of Earth Record Cover, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=137443

The discs contained diagrams that explain where Earth is and how to play the record. Scientists spent a long time working out how to communicate these messages to aliens!

Here are some examples of things that were included on Carl Sagan’s Golden Record. You can find a full list of everything that was included here.

Greetings in ancient and modern languages

English (this was recorded by Nick Sagan, Carl’s son, when he was six!)

Akkadian (an ancient language used in Mesopotamia about 6,000 years ago)
“May all be very well.”

Arabic
“Greetings to our friends in the stars. We wish that we will meet you someday.”

Cantonese
“Hi. How are you? Wish you peace, health and happiness.”

Hebrew
“Peace”

Korean
“How are you?”

Nguni
“We greet you, great ones. We wish you longevity”

Polish
“Welcome, creatures from beyond the outer world.”

Rajastani
“Hello to everyone. We are happy here and you be happy there.”

Spanish
“Hello and greetings to all.”

Welsh
“Good health to you now and forever.”

Music

Bach, Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F. First Movement, Munich Bach Orchestra, Karl Richter, conductor

New Guinea, men’s house song, recorded by Robert MacLennan

Mexico, “El Cascabel,” performed by Lorenzo Barcelata and the Mariachi México

“Johnny B. Goode,” written and performed by Chuck Berry

Georgian S.S.R., chorus, “Tchakrulo” collected by Radio Moscow

Peru, wedding song, recorded by John Cohen

Images

We can’t include the photographs and diagrams included on the Golden Record because of copyright but you can see some of them here. These show some of the same subjects that featured on it.

The cratered surface of Mercury
NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington

If you want to find out more about fantastic scientists like Carl Sagan, subscribe to Whizz Pop Bang, the awesomely amazing science magazine for kids! Learn about inspirational scientists of the past and present every issue – our readers are the in credible scientists of the future!

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Whizz Pop Bang’s trip to Just So Festival was out of this world!

Posted on 23rd August 2023 | by Jo at Whizz Pop Bang | Leave a Comment

Team Whizz Pop Bang spent a wild weekend meeting hundreds of scientists-in-training at Just So Festival 2023. Thank you so much to Just So Festival for having us back again – we absolutely love being a part of this incredible event.

This year, we brought Jonathan Scott from the European Space Agency (ESA) along to share his amazing knowledge of staying fit and healthy in space. Jon works in the Space Medicine Team at ESA and he used his expert skills to run an Astronaut Training Camp.

Jon brought a replica space suit along for Whizz Pop Bang fans to try on!

We were overwhelmed with the turn out for Jon’s talk and it was fantastic to see so many budding astronauts! A HUGE thank you to Jon, and to all of you who came and joined in the fun. We hope you picked up a thing or two about how astronauts stay fit and healthy on board the International Space Station.

We also ran The Whizz Pop Bang Discovery Den, where young scientists could explore their five senses in some super-fun hands-on experiments.

Children were invited to visit us in ‘The Future’ area in the woodland at Just So Festival and try five different activities linked to the senses.

FEEL IT: run your fingers through gloopy cornflour slime (find out how to try this at home here!)
SEE IT: trick your brain with optical illusions
HEAR IT: test how well sound travels through solids compared to through air using clanger hangers
SMELL IT: put your sense of smell to the test
TASTE IT: find out how holding your nose affects flavours

They learned some amazing facts, including:

Dogs have 44 times more scent cells than humans
Sound travels further and faster through solids than through the air
Cornflour slime is a non-Newtonian fluid, meaning it acts like both a liquid and a solid

We hope to see lots of you at Just So Festival in future!

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Team Whizz Pop Bang are going to Just So Festival!

Posted on 1st August 2023 | by Jo at Whizz Pop Bang | Leave a Comment

It’s not long until the fantastic Just So Festival kicks off – it’s running at Rode Hall, Cheshire on 18th – 20th August 2023. It’s an incredible outdoor adventure for families from bumps to great grandparents, and Whizz Pop Bang are so excited to be a part of the fun that’s in store!

The Whizz Pop Bang team are huge fans of this magical festival, and once again, we’re bringing a sprinkle of science to the programme!

Head to Astronaut Training Camp with ESA’s Jonathan Scott in collaboration with Whizz Pop Bang, the awesome science magazine for kids

Ever dreamed of becoming an astronaut when you grow up? Roll up for an action-packed talk by Jonathan Scott from the European Space Agency to discover the skills and techniques needed to stay healthy on board the International Space Station. Test out some astronaut training exercises, feel how gravity affects us here on Earth and check out a replica spacesuit!

Perfect for children aged 6 to 12.

Astronaut Training Camp

Discovery Den by Whizz Pop Bang, the awesome science magazine for kids

Come along to an exploration of your senses at this hands-on discovery session run by the makers of the most awesomely science magazine for kids, Whizz Pop Bang! You won’t believe your eyes, ears, noses, fingers or tongues in this interactive session full of weird and wonderful sensations!
Perfect for children aged 6 to 12.

Find out more about the festival at justsofestival.org.uk, where the line up has been announced! Discover a celestial celebration of the planets in The Observatory, step out of 2023 and into the future at The Future stage, hear stories galore in the Spellbound Forest, and so much enchanted adventure throughout the site. There’s something for every member of the family!

Whizz Pop Bang is an awesomely amazing monthly science magazine that brings science to life for children aged six to twelve (and their parents too)! There’s lab-loads of hands-on experiments, mind-boggling facts, puzzles, news and fun packed into each month’s magazine. Whizz Pop Bang sparks imaginations and inspires the scientists of the future from the moment it comes bursting through their letterbox. Subscribe today at whizzpopbang.com!

If you’re not lucky enough to be going to Just So Festival this year, but want to have heaps of fun with science, browse back issues in our shop now!

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How to play mancala

Posted on 27th July 2023 | by Jo at Whizz Pop Bang | Leave a Comment

Have you ever wondered how to play mancala? It’s an ancient game with lots of variations, but this brilliant video explains how to play one version of it.

If you’d like to try playing mancala, why not start by making your own upcycled set from planet-friendly materials?

Find out how to turn an egg box into an awesome African mancala game in Whizz Pop Bag: Safari!

Get ready to journey through the African savannah inside this wild edition of Whizz Pop Bang! Look out for thundering wildebeest, circling vultures and mischievous meerkats whilst you find out about the incredible adaptations that allow animals to survive in scorching African habitats.

You’ll be able to print leopard-print paper and craft a safari diorama, complete with its own watering hole and real live grass! Discover ten awesomely amazing safari animals, find out how walkie talkies work and get up close with one of the largest and most ferocious predators around – the glorious lion! Meet an elephant keeper at a very special Kenyan animal sanctuary, find out about Thomas Odhiambo who used science to find Earth-friendly ways to control pests on crops and see if you can spot the camouflaged creatures hiding in our photo gallery!

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Whizz Pop Bang reader and their magazine collection

Calling all Whizz Pop Bang superfans!

Posted on 20th July 2023 | by Jo at Whizz Pop Bang | Leave a Comment

This autumn (November 2023) we’ll be celebrating 100 issues of Whizz Pop Bang magazine! We’d love to showcase some of our biggest fans in the Issue 100 Wonder Club pages.

Send us a photo of you with your favourite edition of the magazine or tell us your favourite facts, experiment or joke from Whizz Pop Bang by September 20th 2023 to be in with a chance of appearing on our special superfans page!

Send your photos, facts, experiments and jokes to Y@whizzpopbang.com or Y, Whizz Pop Bang, Unit 7, Global Business Park, 14 Wilkinson Road, Cirencester, GL7 1YZ.

For a chance to appear in Whizz Pop Bang 100’s extra-special Wonder Club pages, we must receive your email or letter by 20th September 2023 – but we love hearing from our readers all year round, so please get in touch any time!

Don’t forget to include your name, age and address. We can’t return any post, sorry.

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