Activities

NUSTEM delivers workshops and activities for primary and secondary schools, and for families and individuals. If you’ve been in one of our workshops, you’ll find extension and support material here.

This is also the place where we write up other projects in which we’ve been involved, pull together our picks of the best STEM resources out there, and more.

The Sports Scientists

Continue your experience as a sports scientist from our workshop for primary students. More examples, activities and things to explore.
Two entomologists in a field with a butterfly net

The Entomologist

Entomology is the study of insects, their relationships with other animals, environments and human beings.

The Computer Programmer

Find out what Year 2 children have been doing in the computer programmer workshop in our partner schools.

The Solar Physicist

Mini Mangonel

A simple design for an elastic band-powered catapult, which can be used as the starting point for tinkering experiments.

Levers, pulleys and gears – Key Stages 1 & 2

Simple mechanisms for Key Stages 1 and 2: gears, levers and pulleys. Context and activities for classroom and home.

The Structural Engineer

Extension material for our Structural Engineer workshop: activities for primary-age children to do at home.

The Sound Engineer

The Materials Scientist

The Palaeontologist

Children take on the role of a palaeontologist and use fossils to find out about the past. The class discover how and why palaeontologists use the past to predict the future.

Environmental Planner

Children take on the role of an environmental planner, examining old maps, discovering how land has been used in the past, and learning how this can be used to predict the future.

E3 Family Space Explorers

The Systems Engineer

Lit and Phil – Flight Open Day

Light Wall

Think Physics’ take on the Exploratorium’s classic ‘Light Play’ activity, an ever-changing sculpture of colours and patterns.

Science for Families: Sound

Pardon? What? Is this thing on? YOU’LL HAVE TO SPEAK UP, THIS IS THE PAGE ABOUT SOUND!

Science for Families – Static

Charged up after our static electricity session? This’ll bring you down to Earth.

Science for Families: Oobleck

Gooey, oozey, blobby… ah, the wonders of cornflour starch.

Science For Families: Plants

Break out the carnations, it’s time to experiment with our leafy friends!

Science For Families: Floating

Master the science of floating, and bob’s what your uncle does when he goes swimming.
By Franco Folini - San Francisco, California, CC BY 2.5, http://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=789616

Science for Families: Pooters

Hunt for mini beasts with our guide to all things pooting. We think that’s a word, at least.

Science for Families: Fingerprints

Follow these guides and you’ll be a dab hand at dabbing for prints!

Science for Families: Light

Things to try with your spectroscope, and more activities based around light.
By Lipton sale at English Wikipedia, CC BY 3.0, http://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3356308

Science for Families: Weather

Things to make and do around the weather. Perhaps on a rainy day?

Think Week – Summer 2017

Think Physics’ spectacular summer school for children aged 9-11 years.

Physics with Food

One of the things I love about physics is that you can find it…

PSTT2016

Presentations, notes and resources from the Primary Science Teaching Trust Conference, Belfast, June 2016.

Technology Wishing Well

Think Physics’ multi-award-winning new installation for Maker Faire UK 2016. Build your own at home!

Wind Turbine Engineering

Recap and extension materials for our wind turbine workshop.

National Careers Week: An inspirational STEM Role Model

National Careers Week is upon us, 7th-11th March 2016! A celebration…

Magnets

Our simple magnetism activities for primary – check back as this resource grows!

A-Level Physics Required Practicals

Films and resources to support the required practicals – help us decide what to do next!

Science for Families

Our introduction to exploration and discovery, for parents and their children.

ASE 2016: Slides and Notes

Notes, slides, and additional links for Think Physics’ sessions at the ASE Annual Conference, 2016.

Internet of Trees

How we built a Twitter-connected colour-changing Christmas tree.

Roller Coaster Design Workshop

Our roller coaster workshop looks at the range of specialisms involved in building rides… by building rides.

Medical Physics

How is physics used in healthcare and medicine? Find out about a range of careers and why studying physics opens doors.

Light Painting

Exploring the science behind photography by looking at the electromagnetic spectrum, and how we can use it.

Space Maths

Scaling and ageing the solar system, in our Space Maths workshop.

The Botanist

Continue your experience as a botanist from our workshop for primary students. More examples, activities and things to explore.

Careers in Space

In the UK, the space sector is growing at an impressive rate.…

Think Week 2015

Joe reports on our first Think Week summer school of science activities.

Goat on a Boat

Key Stage 1 workshop exploring floating and sinking: make a boat to float your goat!

Watching the night sky

Spotting a Dragon


On Tuesday night (or afternoon if you're…

Bubbles

The Think Physics guide to soap bubbles and soap films. How to blow small ones, big ones, and ones you can study the colours in better than ever before.

The 2015 Solar Eclipse

Think Physics’ guide to the partial solar eclipse visible from the UK on 20th March 2015.

The Geologist

Volcanoes

A recap of our volcanoes workshop, with some more activities to try at home.

You won’t believe the scale of this activity…

We recently had a request from a local school for a workshop…

Big Mouth Tumblewings

Explore flight the unusual way, with a tumblewing – a spin-stabilising slope-soaring paper plane. Easy to make, challenging to fly.

Lunar diaries

Explore the moon from your back yard with our handy downloadable observation diary.

Giraffe on a Raft

Exploring materials testing using rafts and… giraffes. Key Stage 1 workshop covering floating and sinking, and working scientifically.

Simple Mechanisms for Primary: Levers, Pulleys and Gears

Simple mechanisms have been part of the primary DT curriculum…

Vacuum Bazooka (shooting sprouts, just to be festive)

Stuff flying through the air is always fun. Unless you’re the…

Jelly Baby Wave Machine

The legendary jelly baby wave machine started out as an item…

Interactive Solar System Map

If you want to know our position in the Solar System as this…

Giant Bubbles

Activity page (with video) from the Royal Institution.

Everyone…

Homemade lava lamp

Activity page (with video) from the Royal Institution.

You'll…

Rubber Band Cannons

Instructions (with video) at the Royal Institution's page.

An…

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