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.