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Woodland Walk
Wednesday 13th August 2025
Our Woodland Walks for school groups are designed to engage children of all ages with the woodland, ponds, meadows and grassland around the Science Oxford Centre. One of our experienced staff will lead the children and encourage them to use all of their senses to explore this inspirational and varied setting. No two visits are ever the same! Children will be encouraged to use their observations and discoveries to ask questions, share their thoughts and develop their ideas.
Pond Dipping Workshop: Ecological Explorers
Wednesday 13th August 2025
Ecological Explorers will start by examining the pond habitat and collecting samples before returning to the classroom to identify what we’ve found using our scientific keys and equipment. We can work to classify our ecological finds, pick out predators, prey and producers and even explore food chains. Our observations can be used to consider life cycles of the different organisms and look at how different species are adapted to where they live.
Planetarium: Out in Space (Thursday and Friday visits only)
Monday 11th August 2025
Immersed in our inflatable dome, children will have a 180-degree view of the night sky above them. They will learn about the movement of the Earth, Moon and other planets, relative to the sun in our solar system, how and why the sky changes throughout the year and tour some of the other bodies in […]
Light Fantastic
Monday 11th August 2025
Making use of our fantastic theatre, this show is both spectacular and thought-provoking and gives children a good basis for understanding the requirements for light in the National Curriculum. See light travelling in a straight line, but also how it reflects on different surfaces. Think about shadows and what causes them. Light is an endlessly […]
Science Surprises
Monday 11th August 2025
The Science Surprises show aims to get pupils thinking What, Why and How? We’ll share a series of experiments with them that have an element of surprise and the children have to try and work out what has happened and why. How can you change one liquid into another? Why does the box suddenly fall? […]
Exploring Evolution
Monday 11th August 2025
This workshop is designed to develop children’s understanding of variation, natural selection (‘survival of the fittest’) and the evolution of populations over time. Different interactive games and simulations will allow children to deepen their understanding of these key ideas and how they relate to each other.
Data Logger Discovery
Monday 11th August 2025
This workshop is designed to enable children to design and complete their own investigation, linked to light, using a data logger. Children will work in pairs and use data loggers to record their findings and interpret their results. For schools with no data loggers, there is an opportunity to borrow data loggers post-visit, as part […]
Think the Link
Monday 11th August 2025
In this workshop, children will be challenged to spot patterns and similarities between a variety of rocks and materials, and to use some working scientifically skills to design an investigation to find the recipe for the ‘best’ snow. This session uses innovative ways to enable children to discuss, observe and think carefully about a range […]
Puzzle Challenge
Monday 11th August 2025
This workshop provides children with a series of intriguing maths games and puzzles which will challenge them to think logically and experiment with numbers, patterns, shapes and angles. Children will be able to access the challenges at their own level and in a free-flow format. All of the activities can be replicated back at school […]
Changing Materials
Monday 11th August 2025
This workshop is designed to develop children’s understanding of states of matter and changes of state, alongside their ability to make careful observations and use them to answer questions and consider ideas. They will learn how to use simple equipment to safely heat different materials with a small flame and will manage their own experiments […]
Topple, Bump and Roll
Monday 11th August 2025
This workshop is designed to develop children’s creative and problem solving skills as they apply their understanding of forces to a Design and Technology challenge. Children will work in pairs to build and test their own chain reaction machine (or Rube Goldberg Machine) using simple materials. Teachers may video their results as evidence of what […]
Science Club in a box
Tuesday 26th March 2024
Science Club in a Box enables you to run a weekly science club. The kit includes six activities with all the instructions and equipment required
Paper Engineering
Tuesday 26th March 2024
Challenge your students to build something amazing with our paper engineering kit, which includes rolling sticks, super strong hole punches, tape and plenty of nuts and bolts. All you need to provide is A4 scrap paper and some inspiration…
Marble Mazes
Tuesday 26th March 2024
Children will be challenged to create a route for a marble to travel through as slowly as possible without stopping, using limited materials. Throughout the activity, discussion can encourage children to consider scientific principles such as the effect of gravity causing the marble to roll and the effect of friction on its movement.
K’Nex Construction
Tuesday 26th March 2024
A versatile and colourful construction kit of rods and connectors which can be used for a wide variety of engineering challenges as pupils can create towers, bridges, cranes, cars and fairground rides.
Dataloggers
Tuesday 26th March 2024
Dataloggers are a great cross-curricular resource – they can record temperature, light and sound levels and the information can be read directly off the screen, converted into pictograms or displayed as a graph over time.
Circuit Detectives
Tuesday 26th March 2024
Pupils must work out where the fault is in eight different circuits using a test kit containing wire, batteries and bulbs.
Electrical Experiments
Tuesday 26th March 2024
Everything needed to teach the topic of electricity at KS2 – bulbs, wires, batteries, buzzers, motors and even propellers!
Light and Shadows
Tuesday 26th March 2024
Everything needed to teach the topic of light with this class size kit loan with torches, mirrors, optical blocks kit to explore and investigate shadows. Three activity boxes.
Circuit Detectives
Monday 25th March 2024
Students are challenged to find the faults in a series of electrical circuits, taking a systematic approach to problem solving.
Practical Engineering
Monday 25th March 2024
Students learn how a basic motor works and use their knowledge of electrical circuits to build a working vacuum cleaner from everyday materials.
Active Evolution
Monday 25th March 2024
Pupils learn about variation, natural selection, adaptation and evolution through a series of practical and discussion activities that really help to develop their understanding.
Exploring Sound
Monday 25th March 2024
What is a sound? Your students explore different ways of making noise in a carousel of activities.
Sound of Science
Monday 25th March 2024
We are surrounded by sound in our everyday lives, but how often do we really think about it? This show explores how we make sound, how we hear it, how we can use it and most importantly how we can enjoy it!
Science of Magic
Monday 25th March 2024
Where did the water go? Why didn’t that fall over? How could an egg be taught to swim? Working scientifically, pupils try to figure out the science behind a series of amazing magic tricks.
Micro:bit Codebreakers
Monday 25th March 2024
Children will learn how to use a BBC micro:bit to send messages to each other, considering the importance of privacy while trying to work out who their secret agent partner is.
Joining Forces
Monday 25th March 2024
Why have we brought a skateboard to your school? How does a person survive a fall from an aeroplane? We investigate the nature of forces and motion with fun demonstrations.
The Fire Show
Monday 25th March 2024
Fire: both the comfort of the hearth, and the danger of the inferno. We examine the nature of fire, answer your burning questions, and learn how fire can be controlled.
Crime Scene Science
Monday 25th March 2024
A mystery white powder has been discovered at a crime scene and students must become forensic scientists to discover what it is by carrying out a series of chemical tests.
Changing State
Monday 25th March 2024
“It will explode!”; “Nothing will happen.”; “It will melt AND evaporate.”
Your children test their predictions by heating up different materials.
K’Nex Workshops
Monday 25th March 2024
Pupils become engineers and design, build and test working models using K’Nex. Workshop challenges include fairground rides, opening bridges, Mars Rovers and rubber band cars.
Great Fire of London
Monday 25th March 2024
What started the Great Fire in September 1666? How did it destroy so much of London? Would we be able to stop it today?
Water Rockets
Monday 25th March 2024
Children design and decorate plastic bottle rockets which are safely launched outside using water and compressed air. The rockets are spectacular and can reach heights of 30m, or can be launched horizontally as rocket cars.
Planetarium: Out in Space
Monday 25th March 2024
Available on Mondays and Tuesdays. Immersed in our inflatable dome, children will look at the wonders of the night sky and explore the stars in a learning environment that is out of this world.
Water Wheels
Monday 25th March 2024
How will we keep the lights on when the fossil fuels run out? This workshop introduces some of the renewable and non-renewable ways that we generate electricity.