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.
September is the ideal time of year for a stargazing party; it’s cheap, easy to host and the kids get to stay up ‘late’ which is always deemed to be fun in itself!
Inside issue 13 is the ultimate guide to the night sky, along with a pull-out stargazing map to help the kids decipher the constellations and find out how to spot Mars, and depending on the conditions, maybe Saturn too!
We’ve put together a party planner for your science party with a difference, including the recipe for planet cake pops to impress all your party guests. And don’t forget to order copies of Whizz Pop Bang science magazine for really cool goodie bags, order single issues here.
For your stargazing party you will need:
The ultimate evening to hold your stargazing party will be on Saturday 10th September as the Moon will be visible in the evening sky and it will be dark by around 8pm.
We have a copy of this fascinating book to give-away as a prize for one our awesome Whizz Pop Bang grown-ups; whether that’s Mum, Dad or maybe a grandparent who likes playing in the sand! SAND: A journey through science and the imagination is written by Michael Welland.
How to enter: simply send a photo of yourself buried in the sand! Yes it has to be you (a grown-up), and it could be just your feet or your whole body, we’re not too fussy on that detail. The winner will be the funniest photo so get creative! You can also send in an old photo, we love a relic 😉
Post, send or tweet your photos by 5th September. We will contact you if you photo is a winner for your address.
Synopsis for SAND on Amazon:
‘This book is all about sand – sand in individual grains, each one a little different; sand in piles; sand in shoals and dunes; the science of sand but also, shot through the book, sand and imagination – the art and the music of sand. Did you know that the Sand Mountain in Nevada emits a low C, while dunes in Chile sound an F, and those in Morocco a G#?
For all its ubiquity, sand is an extraordinary substance. For scientists, it is important in many ways: it represents the crushed remains of past rock, and builds up into layers in lake and ocean beds, layers of sandstone from which we can extract the history of deep time; its erosion creates complex landscapes of mounds and dunes which move in characteristic ways; its grains are remarkable individually and in their behaviour together as a granular material. And to travellers, poets and artists, the deserts it forms are full of grandeur and pathos. Michael Welland is a geologist who has a passion for sand. He shows that truly, one can see a world, both in space and time, in a grain of sand.’
KIDS: STEP AWAY FROM THE SCREEN!!
Your inner curiosity and brain cells are calling you…
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to groom yourself like a cat, to drain the rain, to feel the force and to alter your sense of touch. Taking it to the next level, your mission is to make your own fake blood, loop the loop and snore louder than your Dad without going to sleep. Then it gets tricky: could you grow your own stalactites and stalagmites? Could you lift your Mum off the ground? Could you move water with fire?
How is this possible? For 6-11 year olds across the globe it is possible with science magazine WHIZZ POP BANG!
Buy now and put your child to the test – can they become world class mini scientists? Six copies for £20, free delivery and not a screen in sight: https://whizzpopbang.
Errrrr gross! Slime, goo, rotting fish and the unimaginably disgusting are what you think of when you hear Nick Arnold’s name mentioned. Yes, the Horrible Science author is joining the Whizz Pop Bang team so watch out everyone, Nick’s armed and ready to saw off some legs 🙂
We’re head-to-toe excited about having Nick on board – what more does a children’s science magazine need than a brilliant science writer who gets everyone into the weird and wonderful world of science!
We’re excited and proud to announce we have children’s author and science writer Isabel Thomas joining the Whizz Pop Bang team! Author of shortlisted book ‘How to Change the World’ and ‘Self-Destructing Science’ Isabel will be writing features on science topics in Whizz Pop Bang.
A big warm welcome to Isabel, we’re thrilled to have you as part of the editorial team and can’t wait to get cracking (btw that’s a clue for the next issue which features Isabel’s first article) and you’ll be needing one of these… can you guess the topics we’re uncovering in issue 13?
Happy experimenting everyone 🙂
The results are in from our minibeast competition (issue 11, June) and we have five winners to announce!
Firstly we want to say thank you to all of you who entered. We had over 75 entries of awesome minibeast photos. We now have spiders, bees, butterflies, caterpillars, beetles, slugs, ladybirds, snails, dragonflies, centipedes and moths all crawling around on the Whizz Pop Bang office wall 🙂
Without further ado here are our lucky winners and their prize-winning photos…
Isla Gibbs, age 10:
James Grant, age 7:
Khadeejah Hussain, age 5:
Megan Whitfield, age 10:
Pippa Pang, age 6:
Congratulations to our five winners, your butterfly garden kits are on the way! If you didn’t win and you’d really like a butterfly garden kit they are available from insectlore.co.uk
Enjoy the sunshine and the minibeasts in your garden or park, and remember to handle all minibeasts very carefully and be aware that some might sting.
On Thursday 7th July we took Whizz Pop Bang to London for the Guardian Small Business Showcase Awards evening, as finalists in the home business innovation category for 2016. The event was held upstairs at The Lighterman Bar in London’s redeveloped King Cross area, a fitting venue for start-ups and new businesses to be celebrating growth and ingenuity. As soon as we arrived we could feel the energy and buzzing enthusiasm from the entrepreneurs and small business owners selected from thousands, down to just 18 businesses across six categories.
Whizz Pop Bang was a finalist in the home business innovation category along with Longcroft Luxury Cat Hotel and Spice Kitchen.
The winner that night was Longcroft, who after six years in business now have franchises across the UK for cat-lovers wanting to work from home. Congratulations to the team at Longcroft, we wish you every success and it was great to meet you.
Despite not winning, we are so proud to have been shortlisted as finalists in less than a year of setting up Whizz Pop Bang. So, here’s to the future of awesomely amazing science for kids!
“My 6 year old was very happy to get his first copy today. All thoughts of playing Lego games on the tablet have been forgotten whilst he tells me all about seahorses”
Clair Sperring Cartwright
“Just received our first copy. The boys love it! Proper science, great information and laid out in a really child friendly, fun way”
Emma Veitch
“What a fabulous discovery: a bright, new, engaging magazine with a sense of humour that appeals to children and is packed with fun science facts and activities. I love it!”
Jules Pottle, Primary Science Teacher of the Year Awrded by the Primary Science Teaching Trust
“So we have an egg shell dissolving in a Jar on the worktop and a row of cups with eggs being coloured in the fridge. The “yay fizz pop bang is here!” And the instant opening and reading are worth every penny. My son is six and read us every article over the next week”
Naomi Forster
“My 10 year old loves this magazine and the latest email giving a list of supplies for the forthcoming issues experiments is a fantastic idea. Thanks very much!”
Su Garbutt
“@whizzpopbangmag has created a real buzz in my classroom – rota of kids wanting to take it home to share”
Paul Tyler, Primary Science Teacher
“Love this magazine. We received our 2nd issue today and it was whisked away by my 9 year. Whole family is enjoying this. Thank you Whizz Pop Bang!”
Rebecca Stephens
Would you like to know what makes the best bubbles?
Make a base mixture of water mixed with washing up liquid. If you don’t already have one, you can make a bubble wand using a pipe cleaner. Experiment with blowing bubbles, and then try adding sugar, baking powder, corn syrup or glycerin to your mixture, one at a time. Test how each ingredient changes the surface tension and affects the bubbles.
Have you ever wondered why bubbles form in soapy water but not in ordinary water? The answer is surface tension. The surface tension of water is too strong for bubbles to last – the water molecules pull each other together and the bubbles quickly burst. When water is mixed with soap, the surface tension becomes weaker and the liquid can be ‘stretched’ more, allowing bubbles to form.