WI-Physics-Activity-Pack.Pdf
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PHYSICS ACTIVITY PACK PART ONE INTRODUCTION PART ONE INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION What’s in this pack? This Institute of Physics activity pack contains ideas, resources and activities for anyone wanting to put on a physics-based event. From entertaining interactive quizzes to finding the perfect speaker, you’ll find all you need in here. In this first section you will find some Section 2 contains activities to put The activities can be done by anyone (but information about existing activities and together yourself. Most of these activities young children, if involved, may need a events that you can get involved in. You take a single evening but some could little help with some of them). Although might want to run a book group, find out take longer if you would like them to the materials involved are all safe and if there is a science event happening be part of a bigger event. There are easily available you will want to keep locally, or find someone to give a talk on activities for both indoors and outdoors. safety in mind for each activity. a topic that you are interested in. While some require a little preparation Organising one of the longer activities in advance, any materials that you need is easy with a little preparation. Each can be found in a supermarket. activity comes with specific advice on In the final section, you will find a list of how to prepare, but here are some short experiments. Some of the longer general hints to help everything run activities suggest using specific short smoothly. experiments as part of the activity. You’ll be able to pick the experiments that you find most appealing, or use the resources below to find your own online. How to prepare for the activities The first thing to do is to have a go! Most of the short experiments only take a few minutes to put together so it is a good idea to do a trial run of the experiments involved. You can then spot any pitfalls. The Physics to Go experiments have tips for success. If the physics activity is only part of the evening or event you will need to look at how long it takes to do. You may also want to consider set up and clearing up times. Some activities can be a little messy so you may need to think about being somewhere where there is water to help you clear up. Many of the activities have web addresses where you can find further background information. Don’t forget that even the best rehearsed experiments can go wrong. If something doesn’t work on the night, try again. If it still doesn’t work remember that some of the greatest discoveries have been made when experiments haven’t gone as expected! 1 Science festivals and events There are many science events that take place all over the country throughout the year. Science festivals are a collection of events usually held over a few days or a week. They usually take place around the same time each year, so if you have missed this year’s you can always put next year’s in your diary. Festivals have programmes filled with events exploring all areas of science and aimed at all ages so you’ll definitely find something that interests you. They are great for getting everyone involved. February September Brighton Science Festival A fun day out can be had at any Aberdeen TechFest www.brightonscience.com of the science and discovery www.techfestsetpoint.org.uk/tis Kent Festival of Science centres around the UK and they’re Orkney International Science www.sciencefestival.org.uk/ not just for children. Festival Most are open all year round. www.oisf.org Use the interactive map on the March Association for Science and Cambridge Science Festival Discovery Centres’ website to find October www.sciencefestival.cam.ac.uk one near you. Manchester Science Festival www.manchestersciencefestival.com Newcastle Science Festival http://sciencecentres.org.uk/ www.newcastlesciencefest.com centres Oxfordshire Science Festival www.oxfordshiresciencefestival.com York Festival of Ideas April www.yorkfestivalofideas.com Edinburgh Science Festival www.sciencefestival.co.uk June Bristol Festival of Nature www.bnhc.org.uk/festival-of-nature The British Science Association Cheltenham Science Festival British Science Week happens organises The British Science www.cheltenhamfestivals.com/science in March each year. Events take Festival every year in September. place all around the country. To It is in a different city each year, July find out how to take part, have a look at the British Science so have a look at their website to The Royal Society Summer Science Association’s website. find out if it will be near you. Exhibition www.britishscienceassociation. https://royalsociety.org/summer- www.britishscienceassociation. org/british-science-festival science org/british-science-week 2 Find a speaker If you are looking for someone to bring lively science debate to your evening there are a number of places you can go to find the right people and the right topic. Some people may charge to give talks. Café Scientifique Find an astronomer www.cafescientifique.org www.fedastro.org.uk/fas/ Café Scientifique is for the general public. Go along and have a cup of Many areas have a local amateur coffee or a glass of wine and discuss astronomy society and most of these topics in science in an informal setting. societies will have at least one member A short talk by a scientist is followed by who is interested in talking to non- discussion and questions, and you can astronomers. You can find your local join in or just relax and listen. society and contact details through the Federation of Astronomical Societies. If the astronomer is going to give you a Meet a physicist guided tour of the night sky, the society Local branches also run programmes You can also get in touch with your will be able to advise you on the best of talks which members of the public dates. local Institute of Physics branch. They are welcome to attend. Details are may be able to help you find someone available from the website above. locally to give a talk. Go to www.iop.org/activity/branches/index. html and contact the secretary of the branch covering your area. Geocaching If you would like to make a walk a little physics activity. Take a look at the If your treasure hunters work in teams more interesting you could have a go at website for more ideas of what to add to you could award a prize for the team who geocaching. your caches (www.physics.org/article- completed all of the activities correctly, or Geocaching is rather like a high-tech activity.asp?id=71). who finished the quickest. treasure hunt. The ‘treasure’ is hidden You’ll need to get permission from the in boxes, or caches, and the treasure landowner before you hide caches on a hunters use GPS (Global Positioning piece of land. Then decide how many you System) units or SatNavs to find them. want and what kind of activities you want The website www.geocaching.com has to put in each one. The treasure hunters a list of prepared caches and you can will need the GPS co-ordinates of each search the site for one near you. one and a GPS unit. Of course you will also have to hide the caches carefully so If you would like to make your own they aren’t too easy to find. geocaching trail, take a look at ‘Quest’, put together by the Institute of Physics. Make sure that the treasure hunters have ‘Quest’ is geocaching with a science all they need to carry out the activities twist. Instead of the usual trinkets as – it is best to devise activities that don’t treasure, each cache contains an outdoor use anything up, for example taking measurements or answering questions. 3 Find out more You can find a lot more information online. There are a number of ! really good, clear science websites that will give you more background information about various activities, further short experiments or news about current scientific discoveries that may interest you. Don’t forget Planet Science health and www.planet-science.com safety! This website is full of free fun science resources for young people, parents and teachers. You’ll find the Little Book of Experiments, a collection of short You’ll have to think about health easy experiments that anyone can do, as well quizzes and online games. and safety with each activity. If you try out activities first you Royal Greenwich Observatory should be able to spot where www.nmm.ac.uk/places/royal-observatory things can go wrong and you’ll Here you will find more than visitor information for the Observatory. Explore find safety alerts in some of the online about astronomy and time, why we have British summer time, what longer activities. an equinox is and even how to make your own comet. You may also want to think in How Stuff Works advance of any resultant mess www.howstuffworks.com and take appropriate precautions You can look up pretty much any topic here, whether that is science, to minimise the amount of time technology or medicine. Browse through the topics or search for a specific spent cleaning up. question. Spillages onto a floor can lead to slips and falls so make sure that Exploratorium where liquids are involved they www.exploratorium.edu stay on the table if possible. A great website for browsing around. It also contains lots of activities for all ages.