School’s officially out for the summer!!! WHOOOPEEEEE! Get ready for summer science fun with Whizz Pop Bang and our awesome experiments to do in the garden, at the beach, in the park or at the kitchen table when the skies are black…
Science outside: ☀️ Make a solar oven and bake cookies in the garden ☀️ Forensic science blood spatter test ☀️ Minibeast habitats ☀️ Butterfly banquet ☀️ Lay a pitfall trap ☀️ Make your own pooter (a special pot for collecting insects)
In the dark: ⭐️ Hold your own stargazing party ? Night time safari
At the beach: ? Take the super strong sand challenge ? Sandcastle secrets for Whizz Pop Bang scientists! ? Sand ripples in a bowl ? Panning for gold ? Shake it up!
Wet weather science: ☔️ Make a snoop-o-scope ☔️ Take your own finger prints ☔️ Make your own pond skater ☔️ Fireworks on a plate ☔️ Take the paper clip challenge ☔️ Penny drop ☔️ Whooshing pepper ☔️ Make an ocean in a bottle ☔️ Make a water-powered boat ☔️ Make an octopus
In our FLOWER POWER issue Whizz Pop Bang readers learnt how to use the power of science to make these gorgeously frilly flowers. Paper chromatography is a neat little science trick that you can use to easily separate the different coloured inks out of felt tip pens.
Readers sent in their photos to enter the flower power competition to win a nature keeper tree diary set. As you’ll appreciate it was a tough job choosing just three winners – you should all be winners for producing these colourful creations! However, there could only be three winners and here they are:
Lula Brown, Aged 9
Isabel Soden, Aged 8
Jasper Warner, Aged 5
Congratulations, you have all won a Learning Resources Nature Keeper and Tree Diary Set perfect for summer science in the garden! Have a browse through all the entries for the competition, so many beautiful flowers and budding young scientists… ? ? ?
As part of the Great Science Share, we put together this interactive activity pack for teachers to use in class to show kids what we can all do to reduce the amount of plastic we use. Whether you’re a teacher, a Brownie or Scout leader, grandparent or parent, the Kids Against Plastic campaign is for everyone to learn how to help in the fight against our reliance on plastic.
Click on the image below, download the pack and watch Ella and Amy tell you more… and don’t forget to join in with their mission to collect 100,000 pieces of plastic!
The Great Science Share is a national campaign to engage young people in sharing science with new audiences.
PIONEERED IN MANCHESTER – MAKING A DIFFERENCE UK-WIDE
You can get involved as a School, STEM Educator, STEM Organisation and Business.
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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!
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How to make fake snow with a disposable nappy!
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All you need to make your own fake snow at home are some cheap disposable nappies! Tear open the nappies over a large mixing bowl and shake out the small amount of white powder, so that it falls into your bowl. Remove any fluffy bits of nappy padding, then pour in some water, a little at a time, while stirring. You’ll be amazed at how much water the powder can absorb. Watch the spectacular transformation into slushy fake snow! The white powder is sodium polyacrylate, a polymer (a long chain-like molecule) which can absorb 300 times its own weight in water (which is why it’s used in nappies!).
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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
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!
Are your kids totally and utterly obsessed by dinosaurs? Do they dream about dinosaurs? Well at The Natural History Museum in London there are plenty of dinosaurs and they do attract some interesting fellow snorers at night… Yes every month instead of closing all the doors and saying goodnight to the dinosaurs, sleep tight and see you in the morning, the staff at the Natural History Museum invite families to come and have a dinosaur sleepover.
Dino Snore sleepover for kids at the Natural History Museum
Aptly named the ‘Dino Snore’ this special event is perfect for a special birthday treat, or indeed a treat for your little dinosaur expert who will remember this experience forever.
Don’t forget to take your Dinosaur issues of Whizz Pop Bang with you for bedtime reading! If you don’t already subscribe you can buy back issues here, issue 4 and 14 cover topics on Palaeontologists and How To Hunt For Dinosaurs.
Check out all the details on the Natural History Museum’s website, next available sleepover date is 3rd December so hurry and get it booked:
