Sidmouth Science Festival
We have had four fabulous visits to Sidmouth Science Festival and are looking forward to 2019!
In October 2015, we visited Sidmouth Science Festival and made chromatography butterflies, kaleidoscopes and magnetic racers.
In 2016, we returned to investigate speed. We were very lucky with the weather and had a beautifully sunny day at the Norman Lockyer Observatory. As well as building cotton reel racers and CD hover cars, we used blindfolds and ear defenders to compare our reaction times when we could only use our ears or eyes. We also discovered that the mass of an object does not affect how fast it falls by dropping plastic eggs into sand and we experimented with different variables that affect how far a toy car can travel.
In 2017, our theme was the atmosphere. To demonstrate air pressure, we imploded cans and we also made some carbon dioxide which we then used as a fire extinguisher. Families had great fun working together to make flying machines out of cardboard using our Makedo tools.
We investigated simple machines
with our gear wall
We experimented with weaving and looked
at different fabrics under the microscope
In 2018, we were lucky enough to be out of the rain in the brand new extension. We had a mixture of activities including thaumotropes, chromatography and investigating simple machines using hydraulics and gears.