After months of the lockdown and homeschooling, it’s likely that parents now have a renewed respect for teachers and the realisation of what a demanding and skilled job it is.

It’s not been much help that the museums, art galleries, and other places you could take the kids for a fun but educational day out have also had to close their doors, but there are many free online resources, and it’ll take more than that to stop boffins helping youngsters get the most out of science!

We’ve got a couple of fun experiments for the kids to try out at home, with the appropriate adult supervision of course!

Racing Rockets

You don’t need much to get this exciting experiment started – a tube of Steradent denture cleaning tablets, water, and a tray or flat piece of wood to use as a launchpad.

Empty the tablets from the tube, to get your rocket, then fill it to about one third with water. Break up three or four of the denture cleaning tablets, and place them in the tube with the water.

Put the lid back on, give it a shake for five seconds, and put the rocket on the launchpad and wait for liftoff.

Get a second tube, and make another rocket to race them and see which goes the furthest.

Lava Lamp

All you need for this is a see-thru container – a plastic bottle is ideal – oil, water, more Steradent tablets, and some food colouring.

Fill the container one-third full of water and top the rest up with oil. The oil should float on top of the water. Add a few drops of food colouring then break up two Steradent tablets and drop them in. Then enjoy your lava lamp – lots of bubbles should come up through the oil. Once it stops fizzing you can add more tablets to keep it going.

These experiments form what we call ‘DIY Science’, meaning anyone can do them with things you’ll find around the home. You don’t have to be a scientist to deliver a really exciting science experiment!

If you want a science boffin for children’s parties, get in touch and chat with James Boffin today!