Science Faction
Live experiments with the wow factor - and the concept behind it.
- Key stages
- EYFS - KS2
- Session length
- 45 - 60 minutes
- Group size
- One class, or whole-school assembly
- Formats
- Up to 6 sessions a day
About this workshop
New for 2026. Our experiments bring the wow factor while demonstrating the key concepts your teachers are already covering.
Chemical chaos: watch science get bubbly and explosive - ever made toothpaste big enough for an elephant, or a colourful lava lamp? Sound explorers: sound is made when things vibrate, and the bigger the vibration, the louder the sound. Forces and motion: fizzy rockets show how forces push back and make things fly.
Plants and water transport, material detectives and fog rings round out a session that is genuinely spectacular and genuinely about the curriculum. Perfect for the whole school.
How the session runs
What happens in the 45 minutes
- 01
Capillary action
Three cups are filled with coloured water and two are left empty, with strips of kitchen roll placed between them. The water gradually travels through the fibres of the kitchen roll and into the empty cups, and the colours mix to create new ones - blue and yellow producing green, red and yellow producing orange. It demonstrates capillary action and shows how water can move upwards without being directly poured.
- 02
Lava lamp
Water and vegetable oil are used to investigate density. The oil sits on top of the water because it is less dense and the two liquids do not mix. An effervescent tablet added to the coloured water produces carbon dioxide, and the bubbles rise through the water and oil carrying coloured water upwards before it sinks again. Density describes how much matter is packed into a given space, and less dense substances float on more dense ones.
- 03
Fizzy fliers
An effervescent tablet is placed into a small amount of water inside a sealed canister. The tablet produces carbon dioxide gas, pressure builds inside the container, and eventually the lid is forced down against the surface and the canister flies upwards. This demonstrates Newton's third law of motion: for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Pupils investigate how changing the amount of water or the number of tablets affects the height of the flight, and compare the result with their hypothesis.
- 04
Elephant's toothpaste
Hydrogen peroxide, washing-up liquid, food colouring and yeast are combined to create a rapid chemical reaction. Hydrogen peroxide naturally breaks down into water and oxygen, but the yeast acts as a catalyst that makes the reaction happen much more quickly, and the washing-up liquid traps the oxygen bubbles to create a large amount of foam. The reaction also produces heat, showing that some chemical reactions release energy as well as producing new substances.
- 05
Human circuit
An energy stick demonstrates that electricity can travel through a complete circuit. When pupils hold hands and connect the two ends of the stick the circuit is completed and the device activates; when the chain is broken the electricity can no longer flow. Materials that allow electricity to pass through them are conductors and those that prevent it are insulators - humans conduct partly because of the water and minerals in our bodies and on our skin.
- 06
Screaming balloon
A penny or hex nut is placed inside a balloon and the balloon is spun. The object continues moving because of inertia, the tendency of an object to keep moving unless a force acts upon it, while gravity, friction and air resistance eventually slow it down. Its edges strike the balloon and cause it to vibrate, producing a sound - and changing the speed of the movement changes the pitch.
- 07
Bubble trumpet
A bubble is created on the end of a horn and sound is produced through the horn. The bubble vibrates when sound waves pass through it but does not immediately burst. Sound travels through air as a longitudinal, or compression, wave, in which particles move backwards and forwards along the same direction as the wave - shown with a slinky. Sound needs a medium to travel through, which is why it cannot travel through the vacuum of space.
- 08
Air takes space
Included when time allows. Air is a gas and, although it cannot normally be seen, it takes up space. A cup containing tissue is pushed underwater without being tilted, and the air trapped inside the cup keeps the water out so the tissue stays dry. Gases have no fixed shape or volume and spread out to fill the space available to them, but they can also be trapped or compressed into smaller spaces.
- 09
Float and sink
Included when time allows. Objects sink or float depending on their density and the buoyant force acting upon them: a coin sinks because it is denser than water, while a ping-pong ball floats because it contains air. An orange floats with its peel on because the peel holds small pockets of air, and sinks once it is removed. Archimedes discovered that an object placed in water experiences an upward force equal to the weight of the water it displaces, which is how large metal ships float.
- 10
Fog rings
A vortex is a whirling mass of air or fluid. An air cannon creates one by rapidly pushing air through an opening, with the air in the centre travelling differently from the air near the edges to produce a ring-shaped movement. Smoke makes the vortex visible, and pupils watch how it travels through the room and investigate how it can be used to move lightweight objects such as cups.
What pupils will learn
The science they take away
Every session is built backwards from the curriculum objectives your teachers are already working to.
- 01That changes of state and chemical reactions can be observed and described
- 02How sound is produced by vibration and travels to the ear
- 03How forces act in pairs to produce motion
- 04How water travels through a plant by capillary action
- 05Why some materials float and others sink
- 06That air is a material with properties, even though it is invisible
Curriculum links
What this covers in the National Curriculum
Science - Working scientifically, states of matter, forces, electricity, sound and chemical reactions
- Understand that scientific experiments can be used to investigate questions and test ideas.
- Understand that a hypothesis is a best guess about what will happen before an experiment is carried out.
- Understand that water can move through narrow spaces because of capillary action.
- Recognise that plants use their roots and stems to transport water through their structures.
- Understand that water and oil have different densities and do not mix.
- Understand that a chemical reaction can produce a gas such as carbon dioxide.
- Understand that gases take up space and that gas pressure can be used to create movement.
- Understand that forces can cause objects to move and that every action has an equal and opposite reaction.
- Understand that catalysts can make chemical reactions happen more quickly.
- Recognise that some chemical reactions produce heat as well as new substances.
- Understand that electricity can only flow when there is a complete circuit.
- Recognise the difference between conductors and insulators.
- Understand that sound is produced by vibrations and travels through a medium such as air.
- Understand that sound travels as a longitudinal or compression wave.
- Understand that air is a gas and takes up space even though it cannot normally be seen.
- Understand that density and buoyancy affect whether an object floats or sinks.
- Recognise that trapped air can make objects more buoyant.
- Understand that water exerts an upward force on objects placed in it.
- Understand that friction, gravity and air resistance can affect the movement of objects.
- Understand that a vortex is a whirling mass of air or fluid and recognise how air can be manipulated to create one.
- Develop scientific questioning, prediction, observation and recall skills by making hypotheses before experiments and reviewing them afterwards.
- Work collaboratively and safely when taking part in practical scientific investigations.
Key vocabulary
The words pupils will use
These are the scientific terms our facilitator uses during the session, so you can introduce them beforehand or pick them up again in follow-up lessons.
- Science
- scientist
- experiment
- investigation
- observation
- prediction
- hypothesis
- evidence
- capillary action
- cellulose
- roots
- stem
- water
- mixture
- density
- liquid
- oil
- gas
- carbon dioxide
- chemical reaction
- effervescent
- pressure
- force
- propulsion
- thrust
- movement
- Newton
- action
- reaction
- catalyst
- hydrogen peroxide
- yeast
- oxygen
- electricity
- electrical current
- circuit
- conductor
- insulator
- energy
- vibration
- sound
- pitch
- frequency
- wave
- longitudinal wave
- compression wave
- transverse wave
- air
- gas
- volume
- matter
- solid
- liquid
- gas
- buoyancy
- buoyant force
- Archimedes
- gravity
- friction
- air resistance
- inertia
- vortex
- air pressure
- particles
In your school
The eruption gets their attention. The question afterwards keeps it.
Logistics
What we bring, what you need
We bring
- All apparatus, chemicals and consumables for every demonstration
- A DBS-checked facilitator to lead every session
- Risk assessment specific to the demonstrations performed
- Protective equipment where the experiment calls for it
You provide
- A hall or classroom with space for the demonstration bench
- Access to water
- A member of school staff present in each session
Questions schools ask
Before you book
- Is it safe with the class close by?
- Yes. Every demonstration is risk-assessed, distances are set by the facilitator and pupils are positioned before anything starts.
- Can it run as an assembly?
- Yes. It works as a whole-school assembly or as class sessions across the day.
- Do pupils take part or just watch?
- Both. Several experiments use volunteers, and the whole class predicts and explains throughout.
- Will it make a mess?
- The spectacular ones are contained on trays and we clear up completely afterwards.
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