Become a SUPER SCIENTIST this summer holiday!

Another week of the summer holidays is here, –are you looking for screen-free activities to keep those little brains entertained? For a limited time only, applying for Y’s Wonder Club badges is open to everyone (not just Whizz Pop Bang subscribers)!


This week we’re earning our Super Scientist badges. We’ll take you through the actual steps that scientists follow to study and investigate while ensuring they are conducting a fair test!

Earn a collectible high-quality enamel Super Scientist badge by getting curious! Think up a question, investigate it and record the results and conclusions.

Challenge 1: Think up a question
What would you like to investigate? It could be almost anything… Do birds sing more often when it’s sunny? Which type of surface is best for bouncing balls on? Does your pet hamster have a favourite colour?! Make a prediction of what you think your results will be (scientists call this a hypothesis).

Challenge 2: Investigate it
Plan and carry out an experiment to investigate your question. When you’re experimenting, remember to only change one thing at a time and try to keep all other variables the same. For example, if you’re trying to find out which surface is best for bouncing, you would need to always drop the ball from the same height, always use the same ball and measure the height of its first bounce. It would be more accurate to repeat the tests a few times on each surface and calculate the average bounce height if you can.

Challenge 3: Tell us what you discovered!
Tell us about your results and conclusions. Did they surprise you? Did they lead to more questions that you’d like to investigate further?

How did you get on? Did you follow along with our Super Scientist week?
Send your application in to us to receive your badge just like these super-duper scientists!

  1. Download the Super Scientist application form. Print it out and complete the first page of the application form to tell us about your science investigation. Attach any photos or drawings that you’d like to send to us. If you don’t have a printer, you can type your answers into an email or write your answers on a plain piece of paper and send us a photograph of it.
  2. Ask your parent or guardian to fill in the second page of the form. The postage and packing for the first 500 successful applicants is being sponsored by The Great Science Share for Schools so there’s no need to pay postage and packing for this badge. We will update this page and the form once the 500 badge limit has been used up.
  3. Email your completed form (or a photograph or scan of it), together with any other documents to Y@whizzpopbang.com with the subject line as ‘Super Scientist badge’. Alternatively, post your completed application to Super Scientist Badge, Whizz Pop Bang, Unit 7, Global Business Park, 14 Wilkinson Road, Cirencester, GL7 1YZ. Please note that it can take up to 12 weeks for delivery of the badges.

Post Comment

Join the Whizz Pop Bang Summer Science Challenge!

It’s that time of year again! School’s out for summer and you may be scratching your head for things to do over the summer holidays. We could have just the solution you’re looking for – a chance to earn collectible enamel science badges throughout the holidays!


Did you know that when you subscribe to Whizz Pop Bang magazine, you automatically become a member of Y’s Wonder Club? Find out all about it here! Your mini-scientist will love being put to the test with a science challenge!


GREAT NEWS! Y’s Wonder Club is being opened up to EVERYONE for a limited time over the summer holidays!
Each week, we’ll post some ideas for how your Whizz Pop Bang fan can earn each badge in the collection and enjoy these summer holiday activities. First up is the Wildlife Watcher badge. Mini scientists will love following along learning about their local wildlife and at the end of the challenge, they can send their application in to get their badge!

Do you know a scientist-in-training who might like to become an official Whizz Pop Bang Wildlife Watcher? To earn a badge, they need to…

  1. Make something to help wildlife close to home
  2. Spot some wildlife and record it
  3. Do something to help wildlife

All of these activities can be done from home – what a great way to keep busy and help nature!

Challenge 1: Make something to help wildlife in your area (e.g. make a mini-pond, bug hotel, butterfly feeder or hedgehog house, etc.).


Here’s your first challenge to earn the Wildlife Watcher badge! Wildlife is a vital part of life here on Earth, but many areas of natural habitat are in decline, threatening the existence of many creatures. If we all did our part to help the wildlife living in our gardens, it would have a huge positive impact. This challenge is all about getting crafty and creating something that will help the creatures living all around you. It’s a great way to encourage kids to help wildlife.

Challenge 2: Spot some wildlife and record it (e.g. describe, draw, count or photograph it).


As a scientist, watching and recording is a huge part of the job! Monitoring species and their habitats is how scientists learn all about our world and behaviour. This challenge will get your scientist-in-training learning to think about how animals look and behave. They will be sure to learn a thing or two about the creatures living in their backyards – and you might too!


Monitoring and recording the world around us is a great way for inquisitive minds to get used to asking questions. So why not record all of your findings in our scrapbook? Find out more here.

Challenge 3: Do something to help wildlife (e.g. create a wildflower area in a garden or window box, clear litter from a park or beach, take part in a citizen science project that helps wildlife, etc.). These are great hands on science activities that also benefit the planet.


The final challenge before your mini scientists can send away their application to get that hard-earned badge. Getting involved and helping wildlife makes a huge impact on our planet. So your scientist-in-training will have to think of a way to positively impact the wildlife around them.


Find loads of science projects to get involved with on National Geographic’s website here.

Send your application to us to receive your badge just like these wildlife watchers!

  1. Download the Wildlife Watcher application form. Print it out and complete the first page of the application form to tell us about how you’ve helped wildlife in your area. Attach any photos or drawings that you’d like to send to us. If you don’t have a printer, you can type your answers into an email or write your answers on a plain piece of paper and send us a photograph of it.
  2. Ask your parent or guardian to pay the £1-per-badge postage and packing fee, which can be done online at whizzpopbang.com/shop/719619/badge-postage-and-packing/. Add the order confirmation number to the second page of the application form.
  3. Ask your parent or guardian to fill in the second page of the form.
  4. Photograph or scan your completed form and any other documents and email them to Y@whizzpopbang.com with the subject line as ‘Wildlife Watcher badge’. Alternatively, post your completed application to Wildlife Watcher Badge, Whizz Pop Bang, Unit 7, Global Business Park, 14 Wilkinson Road, Cirencester, GL7 1YZ. Please note that it can take up to 12 weeks for delivery of the badges.

Post Comment

Who won a Picoh robot from Ohbot?

In Whizz Pop Bang: Robots Rock, we ran a competition to win a Picoh robot from Ohbot, and we’re so excited to be able to announce the winners! Read on to find out who won, and to read the brilliant robot jokes and science jokes they coded Picoh to read as their competition entries!

Picoh is a smart little robot that can speak, look around and interact with you when you connect it to a computer. Its LED matrix eyes can blink and change shape. It can smile and frown and it has lights and sound in its shoulders. Whatever Picoh does is all up to your programming skill!

Whizz Pop Bang readers were challenged to code Picoh to tell a joke or say what you love about science, and here are our winning entries! Each one wins their own programmable Picoh robot from ohbot.co.uk. Well done to Sophie, Toby and Ella – watch their winning wisecracks being told by Picoh in the videos below…

Joke by Sophie

How much does it cost a pirate to get his ears pierced?
A buck an ear!

Joke by Toby

What do you call a scientific dinosaur?
A testasaurus!

Joke by Ella

Why did the robot fail his exam?
Because he was a bit rusty!


Post Comment

Watch a flying car actually fly!

Flying cars were once the stuff of science fiction comics but with new designs being tested every year, they are now a reality. By the time you’re grown up, you might even be flying one! This summer, Klein Vision’s car-aircraft hybrid, AirCar, completed a successful 35-minute test flight between two cities in Slovakia. AirCar transforms from a car to an aircraft at the click of a button. Watch it in action here!


Post Comment

Celebrating International Friendship Day: Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage

Today is International Friendship Day and we’re celebrating a friendship that led to some super-important scientific developments!

Find out more in Whizz Pop Bang: CODING CAPERS

The amazing Ada Lovelace was born in London in 1815, and loved maths and poetry from a young age. When she was a teenager, she met a mathematician and inventor called Charles Babbage. Charles was fed up of doing long calculations by hand, so he invented a machine that could do sums for him. He called it the Difference Engine.
Ada was really interested in the Difference Engine. She was inspired to study maths harder than ever before, and she and Charles became good friends.

Charles later invented a machine, called the Analytical Engine, that could do ANY calculations by following a series of steps – but it was so complicated that he found it hard to explain to other people how it would work!

Ada came to the rescue. She was so good at maths that she understood the machine and was able to explain it to other people. Ada wrote a code that turned a real-life maths problem into a list of instructions that the machine could understand. This was the world’s first algorithm (computer code).

She and Charles made a great team! Sadly, Ada died before she could actually help Charles to get the machine made, but the discovery that machines could follow instructions led to the amazing computers that we all use so much today.

Find out more about this fantastic friendship and the science of coding in Whizz Pop Bang: CODING CAPERS!


Post Comment

COMPETITION CLOSED: WIN a Whizz Pop Bang Holiday Science Bundle!

Here’s your chance to pick up a prize that will keep scientists-in-training busy all summer long!

The Whizz Pop Bang Holiday Science Bundle is an ideal way to keep the kids happy over the holidays, or as a super birthday gift. Containing six issues of Whizz Pop Bang, this bundle is bursting with all sorts of amazing science to try at home or on holiday! It contains:

•  Issue 18, Snowball science A flurry of awesome experiments
•  Issue 20, Turn-up the volume: the supersonic science of sound
•  Issue 30, Water force: the awesome liquid that shapes our world
•  Issue 31, Sparkly science: glittering gems, jewels and crystals
•  Issue 34, Shocking science: get the buzz on electricity
•  Issue 35, Sporty science: experiments you’ll get a kick out of!

And best of all? We’ve got a bundle to give away to one lucky Whizz Pop Bang fan!

Just answer the question in the comments to be in with a chance of winning:

A saline solution contains pure water and…?

A) Sand
B) Salt
C) Sugar

This competition closes at midnight on 8th August 2021. For full terms and conditions visit whizzpopbang.com/terms


Post Comment

COMPETITION CLOSED: WIN ION8 water bottles!

One thing we’ve learned while working on Whizz Pop Bang: DAZZLING DESERTS is that you should never head to the driest places on Earth without a good supply of water. That’s why we’ve teamed up with ION8 to bring you this fantastic competition to win one of five 600ml leakproof slim sports water bottles!

Perfect for desert explorers, summer holiday picnics and school bags, these brilliant water bottles are 100% leakproof when closed and made from BPA-free RECYCLON, (made from organic materials from plants instead of fossil fuels). These refillable and reusable drinks bottle are food safe, odour resistant, easy to hand wash, and keep drinks fresh and full of flavour. Find out more about ION8 products here.

For your chance to win one of five 600ml leakproof slim sports water bottles, simply answer the question below and tell us which design you’d like to win: Ecology, Sports, Gamer, Dragon or Cat Astronaut.

What do camels store in their humps?

A) Fat
B) Water
C) Sand

This competition closes at midnight on 31st August 2021. For full terms and conditions visit whizzpopbang.com/terms


Post Comment

Listen to singing sand dunes

Some large sand dunes can emit mysterious sounds like deep musical notes! This happens when ‘avalanches’ of sand slide down the dunes’ steep sides. Scientists have discovered the sounds are caused by millions of grains of sand just the right size colliding with each other as they move down the dune. The sound is usually a deep note, a bit like the drone of an aeroplane, which can reverberate for miles. The pitch of the note depends on the size of the grains.

Listen to this strange effect, recorded in Morocco, here.

Find out more about sensational sand in Whizz Pop Bang: Dazzling Deserts! Sign up by 4th August 2021 to receive this issue as the first of your subscription.


Post Comment

Team Whizz Pop Bang are going to Just So Festival!

It’s not long until the fantastic Just So Festival kicks off – it’s running at Rode Hall, Cheshire on 20th – 22nd August. 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!

Photo: Teneight

The Whizz Pop Bang team will be popping in to run an out-of-this-world Mission to Mars workshop, where interplanetary explorers-in-training will get to explore one of our closest neighbours in space. Come along and look for signs of life, extract Martian core samples and experience the seven minutes of terror faced by spacecraft preparing to land on this fascinating planet!

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, live bands and dance workshops on the Footlights Stage, stories galore in the Spellbound Forest, and so much enchanted adventure throughout the site. There’s something for every member of the family!

Photo: Samuel Mills Photography

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 learn more about the red planet, you can pick up Whizz Pop Bang: MISSION TO MARS in our shop now!


Post Comment

Teaching insects

Are you teaching the topic ‘Living things and habitats’ in Year 2?

As part of the sequence of lessons in your medium-term plan, you’ve probably arranged for your class to go on a hunt for some minibeasts. This is a really fun and engaging activity, but once the children find the bugs, can they tell you what they are? Do they know which minibeasts are insects?

Learning to identify insects

We have an excellent lesson plan that you can use before the children go on their bug hunt. It will help children learn how to identify insects from other creepy-crawlies, which is an important skill to learn in preparation for classifying animals in Year 4. The downloadable lesson pack includes a lesson plan that links to the National Curriculum and gives ideas for previous and future learning.

Insect lesson plan Year 2

The PowerPoint presentation explains how to identify an insect.

One slide from the PowerPoint presentation included in the lesson pack

Make sock insects!

Your class can then apply their newly acquired knowledge by making fun sock insects! This project requires no sewing, upcycles old socks and it’s perfect for both visual and kinesthetic learners. They each just need to make sure that their cuddly insect has three body parts (a head, thorax and abdomen), as well as six legs. They could also add wings and antennae if they like.

To help with the lesson, we have included detailed images of some insects. These clearly show the body parts to help children to identify the things they must include on their sock insect. To support your less able learners, we’ve included a visual set of instructions that can be followed with help from your teaching assistant.

To stretch your top scientists, there’s a spot-the-odd-one-out activity. A rogue creepy-crawly has found its way onto the page with the other insects. The challenge is to find the minibeast that isn’t an insect, and then use one of the insects as a model for their sock toy. It’s important that throughout the lesson you talk about how to identify whether a bug is an insect. By the end of the lesson, the children should be able to identify that an earwig is an insect, but a woodlouse or a spider is not.

Create an insect display

Once the children have made their sock insects, you could create a fabulous display of them in your classroom. If you would like pupils to revisit their learning, ask them to create labels for each part of the insect and then add those to the display, or alternatively take photographs and pop them in their science books for evidence of the lesson. Make sure you share your photos with us too! Use the hashtag @whizzpopbangmag or post them to our Teacher Facebook Group – join here

For your next lesson, the children can go out and find minibeasts, but unlike when they did this activity in Reception or Year 1, this time they will have the knowledge to identify the insects.

Make insect collectors

Here are some instructions on how to make pooters. You can use these to collect insects safely and humanely, observe them, and then release the insects back into their habitats. Download these instructions for FREE

Find out how to make pooters with your class

Guided reading

To help consolidate pupils’ learning, why not introduce some insect-themed reading into your English sessions? Download our fascinating reading comprehension about ants. Since it’s for Year 2, the text and questions have been differentiated for different abilities.

Year 2 Non-chronological report on ants

Whizz Pop Bang magazine and teaching resources are brilliant ways to enhance your school’s science teaching:

  • We provide downloadable science lesson plans, PowerPoint presentations, hands-on investigations and science reading comprehensions written by primary school teachers.
  • Whizz Pop Bang teaching resources link to the National Curriculum, ensuring correct coverage.
  • All of our resources are year group specific, ensuring progression between the years.
  • We make cross-curricular links to other subjects, such as English, Maths, History, Geography, Art, Design and Technology and PSHE.

Prices from as little as £190 per year for a copy of Whizz Pop Bang magazine through the post each month and whole-school access to our ever-growing library of downloadable teaching resources, with unlimited teacher logins.

We’ve also just launched a new individual membership option so teachers and home educators can access all of our amazing downloadable resources for just £20 for the whole yearhttps://www.whizzpopbang.com/schools/#subscribe

“Using Whizz Pop Bang school resources has enabled investigations to be an integral part of my science planning. I now have investigations and experiments throughout my planning rather than just at the end. The lessons are easy to resource and the pack has everything I need to teach the lesson so it saves me time as well!” Louise Hampson, Year 3 teacher 


Post Comment