British Science Week 2024

8th - 17th march 2024

At this stage of Bear's learning journey, Science is not a topic that we have really looked into much. Obviously, when something arises, I explain to Bear in the right terms, which are often scientific... for example, he has a love hate relationship with physics in the sense of what he wants certain toys to do, and what they're capable of doing, and often gets worked up over things like gravity working against him. 

We spend a lot of time in the garden, and outside in general, so weather patterns, the night sky, the moon and stars, bugs and gardening are topics we've dipped in and out of, but we've never looked at them as a topic as such.

I found out that it was British Science Week the day before it was due to start, so it wasn't something that I had a whole lot of time to prep for, but I knew that I had a few books stashed that I'd picked up over the Christmas period when everywhere was selling children's toys and resources, so I dug them out of the cupboard and had a quick flick through them for ideas.

What I decided, was that Bear was still a little young to be looking at Science as a topic, but what I could do in support of the week, was introduce the idea of it as a banner heading. So, we read one of the books I'd got, which exaplined what Science was and how it was split into Biology, Chemistry and Physics, and a little about what that meant. Check out the book here.

From there, I decided to look at general skills that included Science, so obviously, we did some cooking!

We started our baking with a quick experiment with some ice cubes to look at the idea of solids, liquids and gasses. I gave both Bear and The Cub an ice cube and we discussed what it was, and how it was water from the tap, which Bear knew. He also knew that it had to go in the freezer to get cold to become an ice cube. I showed them that by warming the ice cube back up, it became water again. It turned from a solid back into a liquid. We also ahd a quick look at the kettle boiling to see water in gas form too. 

After the ice had melted and we'd talked about it, I gave the boys a square of chocolate each, and asked Bear if he could work out what we needed to do to it to turn it from a solid, into a liquid, like we had the ice. He instantly knew that we needed to make it hot, but wasn't so quick on the how... deciding that maybe we should put it in the toaster! After convincing him that the toaster wasn't the best plan, and using the microwave, we used the melted chocolate to make rice crispie buns, which both boys loved doing, (convincing me that I should be baking with them more often). Once finished, Bear decided that we should take some buns to family members, (and later in the week to a friend at the pub) warming my heart knowing that I am raising a kind and thoughtful little boy. 

The second experiment that happened was just Bear playing, and him making an observation that I explained, as I would have without Science Week being a thing, and whiich led to another experiment later in the day.

Both boys were playing in the garden with the water and pebbles near the mud kitchen and Bear had a bowl full of water, which he slowly started to add rocks to. He was quick to realise that the rocks were pushing the water out of the bowl... I gave him the term displacement, and explained that both the water and the rocks needed space, and that by putting the rocks into the bowl, they wer taking the space of the water, thus, displacing it out of the bowl. Much like how the water level would change in the bath when he and his brother got in... the second experiment. 

When we had run the bath that evening, we used a bath crayon to draw a line on the bath where the water was, and then after they'd both got in, we drew another line and checked out the difference. Over an inch between the lines fascinated even me as I hadn't realised that it would move by so much when they only have a few inches of water in there to begin with.

He found this fascinating, and I have witnessed him in the garden multiple times since with water and rocks in different containers before shouting me to tell me about how he has displaced the water.

If any of you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen my stories about the accidental grass we are growing in our window bird feeder. 

That bird seed had got thrown everywhere by The Cub when we made bird feeders back in January for the Big Garden Bird Watch, (my blog post on this) and some of it had gotten stuck in the gaps of the picnic bench, and had grown the same as the ones in the bird feeder.

When Bear pulled one from between the wood, we could clearly see the roots, the orignal seed and the little shoot that was growing, prompting more questions and a brief biology lesson on the parts of a plant. 

We also planted Bear's bean, a present from his Godparents on his birthday. He has a grow your own name bean in a can, which got put on the windowsill and forgotten about until I moved everything around looking for seeds to plant in the warm weather. 

I planted plenty of seeds that afternoon, more with The Cub's help than Bear's, but he got involved to sort his bean out, following the instructions to plant and water it and wait for it to grow with his name on... a post to follow when it gets there as I've already had so many questions about it since putting it on Instagram. 

What did you get up to for British Science Week? I'd love to hear what experiements you tried...

Momma Bear x