Playing with science: summer educational shows at Eureka!

With a successful summer just finished, I wanted to write a bit about the educational experiences we’ve provided schools during the summer term. It’s a time you might think is a bit more relaxing as everyone looks forward to the holidays, but here at Eureka! play and learning doesn’t stop. During the summer term, we offer schools the chance to experience science shows as part of an educational visit to the museum. Developed entirely in-house by our Learning Team, science shows are a great way of teaching scientific concepts to a large number of children in a fun and interesting way.

Feeling some forces during a science show.

Over the years we have developed a long list of interactive, drama-based workshops covering all areas of the curriculum, but the science show format with its ‘show and tell’ lecture presentation style marked a new venture for us when we embarked on our first show back in 2007 called ‘Splash!’  Aimed at Key Stages 1 and 2 this show looks at all things water related - where it comes from, some of its properties, fun things you can do with water and the importance of saving it.

Presented by our resident science duo Fizz and Flash, Splash! is a great show for a mixed age audience. Even though early KS1 pupils may not fully understand all of the concepts, they still find it visually stimulating and we’ve even performed the show in small rural schools where the audience age range has been from reception to Year 6! Highlights of the show include making water disappear, a water conservation version of Play Your Cards Right and the giant bubble finale where a lucky member of the audience gets to step into a giant bubble!

Fizz and Flash demonstrating the giant bubble in Town Square.

In 2008 we developed a new show based on forces called ‘Feel the Force’. Aimed at Key Stage 2, this time Fizz and Flash are joined by Ted the astronaut bear and explore the different types of forces, demonstrating what they are and why they are so important.   

Forces can be a difficult topic to teach so this show aims to turn a relatively dull subject into a memorable learning experience with lots of hands-on demonstrations and audience participation.

The latest addition to our science show repertoire was developed in 2009. We wanted to write a show with a human body theme and felt that focusing on the digestive system would give us lots of interesting concepts to explore so we came up with ‘From the Chew to the Poo!’ for Key Stage 2 pupils.

This show follows the fascinating journey of a banana and peanut butter sandwich from the moment it is eaten to the moment it leaves the body as waste. Through a series of interactive activities children find out how saliva in the mouth breaks down food in order for it to be swallowed, how our bodies retain the vitamins and minerals our bodies need and more amusingly how it gets rid of what we don’t need.

This is definitely the yuckiest of our three shows and I’m sure our Enablers didn’t think they’d be making ‘poo’ on a daily basis when they came to work at Eureka! but it’s a topic that most kids find hugely fascinating and we get some fantastic comments and pictures from schools following their visit.

It’s definitely been a challenge writing and developing these three shows but thankfully they’ve all proved to be successful additions to our school’s programme. So much so that they also form part of our Outreach provision where schools can book for our Enablers to come and deliver a show in their school.

We’re developing a totally new show now for 2011 which will have a chemistry theme and probably lots of fizzes and bangs - hopefully though we won’t blow ourselves up in the process!

Jenny Parker is the Play and Learning Coordinator at Eureka! The National Children's Museum.