Teaching Ideas for a Science Day!

Bring science to life by holding a Science Day in your classroom! Our post has plenty of cross-curricular ideas to try with your children.

These ideas could also be used as part of Science lessons in a week, month or term.

Teaching Ideas and Resources:

English

• Set up a science quiz. In teams, children research and write science questions. Put them together to make a quiz. Can another class answer them? What about a children vs staff competition?
• Write an explanation of how an experiment you are doing works.
• Write some instructions for another class to perform an experiment.
• Research and write a biography of a famous scientist.
• Run a debate on a science topic, for example, “More money should be spent on space travel” or “Plastic bags should be banned”.
• Research and write an article about a scientific issue, for example, pollution.
• Write an advertisement for a scientific object. What would persuade someone to buy a microscope, for example?

Maths

• Set up some timing challenges; how long does it take you to jump 10 times or run from one side of the playground to the other? Remember to time accurately and record your findings. Compare different people’s results in a table.
• Collect as many different measuring instruments as you can. What are they used for? How do you use and read them accurately? What experiments could you use them for?
• When you are doing an experiment, swap your results with another group and write a conclusion based on them. Did you interpret the results the same way?
• Explore units of measure and match them to their correct use. What is measured in newtons? What is measured in amps?

Science

• Organise a science fair. A few weeks before the event, ask children to work on a science project that they can demonstrate on the day (this could be an independent task for home learning or a group task in class). On Science Day, set up the projects and invite parents, carers and other classes to visit while the children present their work. There are hundreds of ideas here, searchable by age.
• Make your own lava lamp.
• Go on a minibeast hunt in the school grounds or a local park.
• Plant some seeds or bulbs and monitor their growth over the following days and weeks.
• Make a paperclip helicopter.
• Make your own slime (this is a UK version).
• Try out one of the classroom-friendly experiments on the Marvin and Milo site.
• Investigate bubbles. Make sure you use a good bubble mixture, like this one from Red Ted Art. Try making different shape and size bubble wands, from old coat hangers, for example. What happens when you change the shape? Which shape is the most effective?
• Make a bottle bird feeder for your outside area.
• Try making some fun games using circuits (requires flash player).
• Fill some balloons with water and freeze them overnight. How long will they take to melt in different conditions? For younger children, freeze small objects into the balloons.
• Watch this video for inspiration, then create your own domino run.

• Go outside and make some water rockets.

Computing

• Watch this amazing video from Ok Go, and then try their “Timing is Everything” challenge, using a camera or tablet with a slow-motion app.
• Make a QR code science trail around the school using this great app from Class Tools.
• Become a roving reporter, take a tablet or camera around the school; film all of the amazing science going on and edit it into a report on the day to share on the school website or social media.

Design Technology

• Try this Build a Bridge challenge.
• Demonstrate reversible and irreversible changes by melting some chocolate and cooking an omelette. You can turn the melted chocolate back into solid chocolate, but can you change the omelette back into eggs?

Art

• Make some natural paints from plants and paint with them.
• Try this chromatography art activity.

Music

• Make your own musical instruments – there are lots of ideas in this blog post.
• Investigate how sound is made with a range of objects.

Geography

• Make your own water cycle in plastic bags.
• Make rain gauges and set them up in the school grounds.
• Filtering water using a variety of filters. Which one works best?

History

• Research the life of a famous scientist and make a short video about their life.
• Create a timeline of scientific discoveries.

Physical education

• Investigate the effect of exercise on the human body. Take your pulse and breathing rate before you begin, then run on the spot for one minute. What has happened to your pulse and breathing rate? How long does it take to get back to your resting rate?
• Investigate trajectory by setting up a simple target (for example, a bucket) and throwing a range of items into it, for example, balls of different sizes, balloons, scarves, bean bags etc. Make sure it is a fair test by always standing in the same place to throw. How do the different items behave? Why?
• Create a dance based on the water cycle.

PSHE

• Discuss some ethical questions raised by science, for example, should we save endangered animals?