An easy make & do with household scrap and elastic bands, from the Royal Institution’s excellent ExpeRimental series. These are all straightforward activities using household materials, perfect for families to collaborate or compete over on a rainy day.

This film shows you how to turn crisp tubes and a small pop bottle into a surprisingly powerful (and entertainingly inaccurate) foil-firing cannon. Along the way there’s plenty of opportunity to discuss energy transfer and projectile dynamics… or simply to knock things over and cause widespread mayhem.