Thinktank!

Today we finally made it to Thinktank for one of their Home Educator days.  It's somewhere I've heard good things about on numerous occasions, but every time there's been one of these days previously it seems to have clashed with something we really wouldn't want to miss (generally Fun Club), so I had high expectations and it didn't disappoint.

We got the train from Nottingham to Birmingham with Granny, who then continued on homewards, and we had planned to meet friends, E with C, L & J and their Grandma P, at the station and walk there together.  This didn't quite work out, but we all got where we needed to be when we needed to be there, so it wasn't a problem.  K & M had chosen the same three sessions (fortunately since they need an accompanying adult!), two of which were the same as C and her brother L, who we were meeting up with, the first one was different though.  We started off in the Science Garden for a session called Movement and Machines and explored three different types of simple machine, levers, pumps and pulleys.

The first task was balancing a see-saw, which is a type of lever, the catch being they had bottles filled with varying amounts of water.  They started off with just two bottles, then when they'd managed to balance those, they had to add another one to the equation (putting it in the middle was not allowed), finishing up with 5 or 6.

M balancing the see-saw.

K working with others to do the same.

The children were put into groups fairly randomly, although it was really enforced, which meant that K & M weren't in the same groups.  K was a bit reluctant to be in a group with strangers, but actually after the first task, which apart from a bit of frustration with some boys who kept trying to add bottles before they had balanced what they already had, it was fine.

The second task was about pumps and after a brief introduction when the man talked about the pump in our bodies, and how the heart pumps blood around our bodies, which if you lay out all the arteries, veins and capillaries end to end would stretch twice round the world for a child and double that for an adult!  They then used pumps to blow up balloons.

The final task was to pull a very heavy weight up a short slope, first with the help of one pulley and then with the help of two.  The children discovered that it was much easier to pull the weight up when there were two pulleys than when there was just one.

Heave!

M had a quick go on something else with pulleys, before we met up with our friends to have our packed lunches.

 Most of us had a couple of hours before the next session, except E and J, who was too young for some of the sessions that the rest of the children were doing.  The children had such a good time on The Street that they didn't really want to explore much of the rest.

Having a go with the digger.

The second of our sessions was Cauldron Chemistry, which was a demonstration of various ways that Tom could 'cheat' to pass his magic exams by using science.  He made 'potions' change colour and 'smoke' (using universal indicator and dry ice).

Potions.

He made his wand spark with different colours, by dipping the end in different materials and then waving it over a flame.  He showed that helium would be the best choice to help him levitate on his broom, by setting a flame to a hydrogen filled balloon, which exploded, showing that although it floated too, it wasn't as safe.

At the end I asked K if she'd liked it and she told me in no uncertain terms, and very disapproving tones, 'No, he shouldn't be encouraging people to cheat!'.  She was torn whether to go and tell him so and that he seemed better suited to a career in science than magic, but in the end shyness won out and she didn't.

We then headed for our final session, which was a CSI activity about forensic science.  The children had to solve the crime, working out which of the three main suspects had stolen a valuable brooch from a museum display, by looking at fibre and hair samples, finger and shoe prints, dna evidence, blood type and handwriting.  They also got to take a print of their own fingers to take home.

K & C looking at the Fibre Sample Library.

The Fibre Sample Library with the yellow fibre found at the scene of the crime.

Blood samples.

As well as working out which of the blood samples matched the one taken from the scene of the crime, the children were asked to work out the blood type of each of the three main suspects, by comparing theirs with the control samples of each of the four main blood types.  They looked at whether each sample formed a 'scab' when 'Anti A' or 'Anti B' protein was added, Blood Type A formed a scab only with Anti A, Type B only with Anti B, Type AB with both and Type O with neither.

K studying the fingerprints.

M looking at the (simplified!) DNA profiles.

It took a while to tear K away from here, as she had returned to the fingerprints and was studying her own and identifying the different pattern on each of her fingers.  While she was doing this, I told Tom, who had led this session, as well as the Cauldron Chemistry one, what K thought about encouraging people to cheat and that he might be better suited to science rather than magic and he laughed and agreed.

This was the final session of the day and we had half an hour or so before the museum closed, so we had a look around the level where it had taken place.  K & I had a go at an interactive thing about precious metals and what they do at the assaying office, which was quite interesting.

When we were finally kicked out, we headed back to the station with E, C, L, J & P.  We had talked about finding somewhere to eat together, but in the end that didn't work out and we ended up buying something to eat on the train.  We finally got home at about 7.30pm and after a planning session of their next puppet play with A & Mr Fox (it's a comedy apparently) K & M went up to bed.