5 facts about Chemical Cress

Today I realized I have never really introduced myself on the Fun Science blog, so in case you were wondering who 'Chemical Cress' really is, read below for 5 things about me. I would love to know if anyone actually reads this blog so feel free to comment 5 things about you so we can all get to know each other! 

I love to juggle - I learned to juggle when I was 16 and have recently got back into it. I was never concerned with 'numbers' juggling and instead have tried to master a number of three ball tricks such as Mills Mess, The Windmill and 'The Crane'. Look these up on Youtube if you want to! You can also see a video of me juggling here but the quality of filming is pretty poor!  When I came to university I ultimately wanted to join the circus or be a Butlins' Redcoat. I still haven't given up the Redcoat idea completely but I've gone off the circus one!

I have a degree in Biology/Psychology - I'm pretty sure I posted about this before, but in July 2013 I graduated with a first class honors degree in Biology/Psychology (Bsc) from Bath Spa University. My favorite parts of the course were learning about the human body and anything to do with genetics! My dissertation was about juggling and was titled 'the influence of juggling on spatial abilities, reaction time and vigilance'. If anyone would like to know more about what I did/found out feel free to ask.

I genuinely love science - You would think, working with science all day every day I would get bored of the subject, but in fact this job has only increased my passion for science. I volunteer regularly at @Bristol and have free entry so go there often. I recently took a trip to the London Eye for my parents' wedding anniversary and persuaded my whole family to stop off at the science museum for two hours which was not long enough!

I can solve a Rubik's cube in 2 minutes - This list is starting to become a 'things Cress can do' list but genuinely, this one sounds more impressive than it is! If anyone ever tells you that solving a Rubik's cube involves mathematical ability or logical skill - they're lying! All it really takes is practice and anyone can do it - give it a go, it's a great party trick!

I really like pantomimes - My family has always watched at least 3 pantomimes a year, even though, at 21, I am the youngest in the family! In the last 3 years this has increased to 4 a year when my brother started performing in one in Swanage and this year I'm performing in one with the Bath Unity Players bringing the total (for my parents) to 5! It's safe to say we are well rehearsed with our 'it's behind you's. 

Click here to learn how to solve a Rubik's Cube

Click here to find out more about @Bristol

Click here to find out more about the Bath Unity Player's performance of Robinson Crusoe and the Pirates

So there you have it, I hope this hasn't turned out too much like an online dating profile and feel free to leave any comments or questions below!

The run up to Christmas!

Well, Christmas seems to have crept up on me yet again! Here at  Fun Science, preparations are well underway for science themed Christmas Parties and our Christmas holiday sessions. 

Fun Science seems to have developed a (very small) parental following and after just two posts about our science themed activity days (complete with a Christmas mystery and launching Santa's Sleigh) five children have signed up already! I have to admit, this made me more than a little excited! Hopefully more children will book to come soon and our limit of 40 children will be reached. Forty children looks like a lot when you write it down, but with 5 members of staff on hand to help and the children split into small groups it soon becomes manageable. 

Other Fun Science events coming up include running a science themed activity day for children at Heywood School on the 18th December, 4 free assemblies for local schools, 15 birthday parties between now and the end of December, being a guest speaker at a Bath Spa University industry insights event, talking to year 10 pupils about business and attending the launch of the Engine Shed in Bristol. It's a good job I enjoy being busy!

Next term we will be running our science themed after school programme at The Paragon School, Bath and St Keyna Primary School, Keynsham but that's a blog post for another day!

Visit www.fun-science.org.uk to find out about our christmas holiday sessions, schools services, event services, free assemblies, birthday parties and much more! 

The best printable science party invitations!

Here at Fun Science we often get asked if we have our own party invitations and an internet search shows that free, printable science party invitations are not widely available. We are intending to create our very own Fun Science party invitations but until then we have found two of the best, free printable downloadable invitations and have included links to them below. 

1 - Living Locurto 

Website Living Locurto has a lot of brilliant ideas for cakes, sweets and table decorations for your child's science party. They also have some brilliant printable invitations that invite children to join your child's experiment. You can find the ideas and invitiations here.

2 - Safari Science

Safari science have some great printable invitations for Reptile parties, critter parties and also science parties! They are a little less creative than number one but you could jazz them up yourselves either using an image editor or after they have been printed with card for backing and glitter potions! Check these invitations out here.

Book a science party from only £80 at www.fun-science.org.uk

Top 10 tips for organising kids parties

Organising a children's birthday party can be stressful but there are a few things you can do to help things go smoothly.

1) Put balloons on your gate/driveway so that people can find your venue. This is helpful for your guests and also any entertainer you may have booked. It also helps everyone to turn up on time which in turn makes your life easier!

2) Book your entertainment to start at least 15 minutes after the children are due to arrive. We know from experience, if you invite 20 children they will not all be ready to get started at the time written on the invitation! This gives everyone time to get in and say hello to each other, it also minimizes the amount of time you have to keep them entertained afterwards!

3) If you have booked an entertainer, try and make sure any adults who have stayed to watch do not talk over them as this makes it hard for the children to be able to hear. Perhaps have a separate area that adults can go into to for a cup of tea or coffee and a chat. 

4) Find out if any of your child's guests have any additional needs or disabilities. Children often forget to let you know about details like these but if you know before hand it can be a lot easier to cope with a child who needs a little extra help. If you can let your entertainer know as well then even better!

5) Make a checklist of everything you need. A few things to get you started are plenty of bin bags, a knife and candles for the cake, a camera and batteries and plenty of bluetack/sticky tape to hang up decorations. 

6) Don't be feel any pressure to be adventurous with your party food. A few sandwiches, fruit, veggies and dips, cakes and a 'cook in the oven' pizza will go down brilliantly with the children!

7) Make sure invitations go out far enough in advance. We recommend at least three weeks before the party date but the earlier the better so that people do not get booked up with other commitments

8) If you are hiring a room make sure you allow 30-45 minutes before and after for packing up and setting away again. 

9) Get someone to help you. Running a kids party on your own is hard work! Ask some of your child's friends parents if they can help you out and maybe you can help at their children's parties in return. 

10) Enjoy yourself! It may seem like a lot of hard work but it will be worth it to see the smile on your child's face. After all, birthdays only come once a year. 

Building a Mars Rover at @Bristol

There can't be many people who can say that at work today they build a Mars rover! But that's exactly what I was involved with when I volunteered for a morning at @Bristol science museum in Bristol. Admittedly the 'rovers' were remote controlled cars with velcro strips for attaching cameras, batteries and antennae (all plastic but all very good imitations!) but for the children they were aimed at they were perfect! 


Children first got the chance to choose what to attach to their rover. How many cameras would they need? Many initially went for one facing each way but then realized that they would need two pointing in each direction to get any kind of depth perception. Children also had to decide how to power their Rover. Nuclear generators create a lot of power but are expensive and would only last for two years, batteries can store energy but do not last long and too many would be very heavy whereas solar panels can receive energy from the sun but cannot store it. In the end most children decided upon all three! We also had to work out how to transmit any information we picked up back to Earth. Did we want to use a satellite which is very heavy but can transmit data directly to Earth or an antennae which is lighter but can only send information a short distance to a nearby satellite? There were lots of decisions to be made!

After the Rover was filled with numerous plastic models children were given the chance to build their own scoop out of Knex before driving their Rover over Mars! Ok, well it wasn't quite Mars but a specially made cardboard surface with numerous rocks made a very good alternative. As the Rovers bumped into cones, rock samples were knocked off into the children's scoops. It was all very clever!

The final step was to analyse the rocks. Were they smooth? If they were this could provide strong evidence that they had once been surrounded by water. Also, if they fizzed when nutrients was added to them we could determine that there may well be life forms within the rock. Children were able to complete all experiments themselves before deciding whether they thought there was life on Mars based on the evidence they had collected. The general consensus was that it is possible but further tests are needed. 

I had a brilliant time the day I went to @Bristol and I know lots of children did too! If you haven't had a chance to visit the Mars Lab exhibit at @Bristol then make sure you get down there as soon as possible as the exhibit closes on the 14th October. Visit http://www.at-bristol.org.uk/ to find out more. 

What we have been up to - Summer 2013

This summer has been a whirlwind of parties, holiday events and even a graduation! Read on to find out exactly what we have been doing and how Fun Science has been contributing to the local community.

Summer community events

Fun Science tries to help out local charities and community organisations by running workshops and activities for free or at a heavily discounted price whenever possible. This summer we spent a day running sessions for 150 girls aged 11-18 at a Guiding Event in Huish Woods, Taunton, Somerset. The girls were all given the opportunity to make their own rockets, raise their hair on our Van de Graff generator and learn a little about their own bodies with spirometers, lung capacity bags and blood pressure monitors. The following quote from one of the Guides (all of whom had been working their way around various activities throughout the day) summed up exactly what we at Fun Science are always trying to achieve.

"I was looking forward to the Fun Science least of all because Science is boring but it has been my favorite thing out of the whole day!" - Guide aged 14.

Fun Science were also very lucky to receive funding to work with some of the youngters who have recently started living on the brand new Wyndham Park estate in Yeovil and so Chemical Cress came along to do a couple of outdoor science sessions including rocket launches, illusions and chemical reactions. The primary aim of this event was to give the children on the estate, many of whom have moved to England from various European countries, a chance to get to know each other and to make friends with others in a similar situation to themselves. Fun Science helped to get the children interacting with each other through a range of activities whilst also getting them excited about science - the Mentos and diet coke experiment was a big hit!

Click here to find out more about our workshops.

Graduation!

This summer, Cressida Bullock, the owner of Fun Science and the leader of many of the company's events, graduated from Bath Spa University with a 1st Class Honours degree in Biology. This was a very exciting day and you can see Cressida below, dressed in her graduation robes with a very big scroll!

Lots of new scientists join our team

With the increasing popularity of our holiday events it became necessary to increase the size of our team at these events. We were very happy to welcome back some familiar faces and have also taken on some new members of staff for holiday events. Pictured below are Krypton Katie, Mercury Mali, Helium Hattie and Chemical Cress after working extremely hard at our three summer fun days in Bath.

We have also been very excited to take on a new employee to cope with an ever increasing demand for Fun Science birthday parties. Our new party entertainer Hydrogen Hana has already received some fantastic feedback and, following extensive training, received the following review after her very first party!

"Could you pass on to Hana that she was very good and the children all loved it, I didn't know at the time it was her first time, and I wouldn't have guessed. (my husband told me later, she had told him) she was prompt, confident at talking to the children, and as my 3 year old said 'the science lady was very friendly' !  They all loved making the slime, getting certificates with their science names on and the experiments she did with mixing the household 'chemicals' . Particularly the green stuff that foamed out of the top. My son was delighted at being at the front helping, that was just what he wanted as birthday boy"

To find out more about our holiday events, birthday parties or other services please visit www.fun-science.org.uk or email info@fun-science.org.uk

How to choose a children's entertainer and what questions to ask

Children's entertainers can be a fantastic addition to your child's birthday party as they provide something a little bit different whilst taking the pressure off you as a parent. When it comes to choosing the entertainment for your child's birthday party, it's important to get it right. Luckily, as entertainers ourselves, we at Fun Science know some of the top tips for choosing the entertainment for your child's party!

1) Find something your child is interested in - So maybe your child likes dinosaurs, princesses, science etc.. Try and find an entertainer that specialises in providing parties to suit your child's interests. Children's entertainment has progressed a long way from the times when every child had a juggler or a magician at their birthday party. Of course, there are many fantastic jugglers, clowns and magicians around and so if this is what your child is interested in then my all means book one, but don't be afraid to look around for something a little bit different. 

2) Pick a recommended entertainer - Any good entertainment companies will have a section containing testimonials or comments from previous parties, however if they don't then do not be afraid to ask for one. Also, many companies offering character entertainment may employ a number of staff to act as that character and some may be better than others. Make sure you ask for a review or reference of the specific person that will be leading your entertainment on the day. 

3) Shop around - Cheaper prices do not necessarily mean lower quality - As a company offering prices that undercut many other similar companies in the area, we often hear comments such as 'we paid far more for her brothers party and it wasn't nearly so fun!'. This is because a lower priced company does not necessarily mean that the quality is compromised, in fact it is far more likely to be indicative of the companies costs. For example, our parties are priced fairly low because we have very few overhead costs and prefer to use word-of-mouth advertising. 

4) Communicate with your entertainer - Tell them if you have any special requirements. Perhaps your child is particularly looking forward to seeing a particular magic trick or juggling routine that they saw at a friends party - be sure to let your entertainer know to avoid disappointment.The golden rule here is 'just ask!'. At Fun Science we are always happy to do all we can to cater to size, age and theme requirements, but if we don't know that there will only be 5 children or that your child has invited friends aged from 3-11 - we can't prepare!

5) Make sure the entertainment will be age appropriate - Most entertainers will have age guidelines and it is generally best to stay within these. If they do not state a particular age, it is best to ask or to let them know the age of the attending children so that your party can be altered accordingly. However, that being said, you know your children best and if you think that a party that claims to be suitable for ages 6-11 would suit your 4 year old perfectly then remember the golden rule and 'just ask'. Our parties are recommended for children aged 5-11 yet we have run many successful parties for children slightly younger or older whose parents have let us know their child's age beforehand. 

6) Book a Fun Science birthday party! - Of course, this list wouldn't be complete without a little shameless advertising! If your child is into science, our party packages are engaging, interesting and have received many fantastic reviews. We also cover most of Somerset and Wiltshire so have a look for yourself at http://www.fun-science.org.uk/parties.html