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Our workshops are FUN. They're both hands-on and minds-on so they engage both your child's left side and right side of the brain. We target the Big Ideas in STEM and science rather than the "baby science" they get in school. Our core curriculum covers the Periodic Table, molecular theory, electric charges and protons, electrons and neutrons. Even high school kids are helped with these advanced concepts, as we make it easy and fun for them to fly higher in their science journey. When you read our curriculum below we think you will be convinced.
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9 am Tue 11th April 2023 UQ St Lucia Campus
What They Learn
Your child will discover that just 92 different kinds of atoms make up their world. That they're invisibly tiny. That each has its own shorthand way of writing it, called its symbol. That each has its own special number, called its Atomic Number.
We call the Periodic Table the "Alphabet Of The Universe" because it contains the symbols for all 92 atoms found in Nature, plus some extra ones, arranged in order of increasing Atomic Numbers. Just like the normal alphabet, the Periodic Table is a list of letters that kids can use to build "words", that is, new substances just as Nature does. Your child learns about the nuts and bolts of the Universe.
What They Do
Their first activity is using an LED-powered 40 x magnifier and a 100 x microscope to make things look much bigger. Kids are so engrossed in this activity when they discover that their finger prints looks like mountains and valleys, a sand grain looks like a boulder, and their hair looks like a giant rope. This gives them a sense of scale in understanding that, to see an atom, they would need to magnify something a million times using an electron microscope.
The most important categories on the Periodic Table are the metals and non-metals. This is awesome because it turns out to be hugely fun to distinguish between them using an electric circuit containing a bulb. Your student will test different objects and if the bulb lights up, it is positive for a metal.
We finish the workshop with a literal bang by showing what happens when liquid nitrogen expands to a gas 700 times its own volume inside a balloon. We also demonstrate the difference between element number 7 (nitrogen) and element number 8 (oxygen) by their different response to a flame. We won't give the game away but it will be memorable.
What They Get
Each student will be given their own A4 Periodic Table to take home and stick to their wall. The Universe in their own bedroom! We will also give them some free element samples that might inspire them to start their own element collection.
9am Tue 11th April 2023 UQ St Lucia Campus
Parents, You're Invited
What better way for parents to support their child's learning than to join them at no extra charge? You might even have some "ah ha" moments when you remember long-lost science concepts, or discover new ones that blow your mind. Some parents get as much out of it as their kids.
If you can't make it, that's fine. We will provide the best learning opportunities for them to grow their science while at the same time meeting new friends and having holiday fun.
Starter Workshop 2: Molecules
9am Wed 12th April 2023 UQ St Lucia Campus
What They Learn
Kids find molecules easy to understand, yet the topic is mostly avoided at primary schools. They learn how atoms can bond together to form these groups and that they obey definite bonding rules and how to write structural and molecular formulas like H2O and CH4.
The workshop progresses from the FABULOUS FOUR™ molecules that join together using single bonds: hydrogen H2, water H2O, ammonia NH3 and methane CH4. The TERRIFIC THREE™ molecules employ double or triple bonds: oxygen O2, carbon dioxide CO2 and nitrogen N2.
What They Do
Each student builds the Fabulous Four and Terrific Three molecules using our ingenious magnet-based Sticky Atoms models (see animated gif below). These molecules are crucially important in our everyday lives (where would be without H2O and O2?), but they also demonstrate underlying chemical principles by showing all four chemical valencies of the different atoms as well as single and multiple bonds that stick them together. With these seven molecules under their belt most other molecules are just variations that they can construct in a jiffy.
They get to make more complex molecules such as acetic acid, ethene, ethanol and hydrogen cyanide. They wrap it up with an amino acid then team up with their partners and classmates to join the amino acids together to make a class-wide protein molecule. This is university level science. But mostly just fun.
What They Get
They will receive 10 EVA foam atom models with which they can build their own amino acid (glycine) molecule model to take home and place on their desk as their own show-stopper.
9am Wed 12th April 2023 UQ St Lucia Campus
Your Atomic School Instructors
Our workshops are run by knowledgeable and experienced science communicators who are skilled in making advanced concepts easy to understand to kids (and adults) Our expert instruction builds understanding of fundamental science concepts. This is reinforced by carefully designed hands-on activities that reinforce their understanding. Finally, we do fun and spectacular demonstrations that have that WOW factor which kids will remember and talk about with their friends.
Starter Workshop 3: Electron Shells
9 am Thu 13th April 2023 UQ St Lucia Campus
Starter Workshop 1 is best done before this workshop.
What They Learn
They discover first hand that there's electricity inside matter by doing some simple yet surprisingly dramatic electrostatics experiments. This sets them up to understand that electric force can be attractive or repulsive, and gets stronger with both charge and weaker with distance.
Because protons and electrons are Nature's fundamental charge carriers, they dominate the atom's "personality" explaining the layout of the Periodic Table, and why atoms occupy their exact positions in it. This is upper high school chemistry but we find that primary kids can eat this for breakfast because we explain it in such a clear way.
We dive deep into the inner workings of how the atom is make of protons and neutrons in the nucleus, and electrons in shells on the outside. They learn the new, modern definition of Atomic Number which is the number of protons in the nucleus.
What They Do
The workshop starts with fun activities involving electric charges where they make pieces of paper dance, hair stand on end, and push an aluminium can with a charged rod. They even bend a stream of water as if by magic (but really with science). Better still, they get to see their instructor zapped with a 400,000V Van der Graff generator with a mini-bolt of lightning. The machine can also make cupcakes fly into the air like a fountain. This sets them up to understand the inside workings of the atom.
To understand the layout of protons, electrons and neutrons inside atoms we use our proprietary Atom Maker model which mimics the structure of the atom and makes it a walk in the park to understand how protons and electrons behave towards each other, and with themselves. And how this affects all the things in the world.
What They Get
Each student gets their own plastic rod and charging cloth to perform all the electrostatic experiments at home, and show their siblings and friends. The rod and cloth have been specially selected to maximise the "triboelectric" charge and force effects.
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9 am Thu 13th April 2023 UQ St Lucia Campus
Starter Workshop 1 is best done before this workshop.
Advanced Workshop: Respiration
9 am Fri 14th April 2023 UQ St Lucia Campus
Starter Workshops 1 and 2 are best done before this workshop.
C6H12O6 + 6O2 → 6CO2 + 6O2
What They Do
Students will work in pairs to build molecular models of glucose, C6H12O6 and six O2 molecules. Then they will chemically "react" the models to make six CO2 and six O2 molecules. This will give them a deep insight into how respiration works inside animals and plants alike, and set them up to understand their own bodies better.
They will read an oxygen meter for the % content in air, and then in breathed-out air, showing them their body has used O2.
They will also perform the "limewater test" for CO2 in their own breathed-out air and compare it to fresh air.
What They Learn
Your child will discover that their body is like a car engine- it needs fuel and O2 to make it move (and to think). It also needs to get rid of waste products, CO2 and H2O.
Whereas a car's fuel is octane, C8H18, your body's fuel is glucose, C6H12O6, that it gets from your food.
Your lungs double as your air intake and your exhaust pipe. Surprisingly much of the food you eat through your mouth as solids end up coming out of your lungs as CO2.
