The Science of Change!

A highly engaging, revelatory and thought provoking and informative whole-school programme, The Science of Change can accommodate the whole of up to a two-form entry school in a single day, compromising …

An interactive assembly, Adapt to Change, demonstrating an example of adaptation stretching back more than three hundred million years – the Story of Humanity!

Workshops (one per year group), exploring specific contributions made to in relation to particular science strands – and touching on the roles played in those areas by individual scientists, technologists and engineers – with a deliberate and conscious focus on diversity.

 - Reception / P1 (Exploring the World): Adapting our Kitchens … How have items in our kitchens changed people’s lives? What’s the science behind some of them? And who are some of the great Kitchen Inventors?

Individual in focus: Sarah Boone, an American woman who, despite being born into slavery, adapted existing designs to invent the modern ironing board!

 - Year 1 / P2 (Materials): Adapting our Clothes … What materials do we use to make clothes? How do scientists adapt these for different purposes? And how might things change in a more sustainable future?

Individual in focus: Empress Leizu, an Empress of China who, the story goes, was the first person to make silk – and who adapted farming methods to share her discovery with others!

 - Year 2 / P3 (Plants): Plant Adaptations … How do plants adapt to different habitats and conditions? How do scientists observe these adaptions? And what role does the Sun play in all this?

Individual in focus: Jagadish Chandra Bose, an Indian scientist who made important discoveries about ways in which plants respond to their environments.

 - Year 3 / P4 (Forces): Adapting for Forces … What do we mean by “forces”? Which forces have particular impacts on our lives? And how do scientists and inventors adapt their work to take account of forces?

Individual in focus: Alexander Miles, who was lucky enough to be born in the free state of Ohio and so not enslaved, and who used forces to make department stores much safer places!

 - Year 4 / P5 (Animals, including Humans): Adapting to Diet … How are digestive systems adapted to diet? How does the human digestive system work? What about the digestive systems of other classes of animal?

Individual in focus: Aleen Crust, born in Ireland and one of the world’s first professional women vets, Aleen cared for the army’s horses on the front in World War I.

 - Year 5 / P6 (Properties and Changes of Materials): The Science of Food Adaptation … What is the science of baking? What roles do reversible and irreversible reactions play in this? And what about states of matter?

Individual in focus: Ruth Wakefield, an American cook who used a range of factors, including temperature, insulation and surface area to invent the “impossible biscuit” – the chocolate chip cookie!

 - Year 6 / P7 (Light): Adapting our Uses of Light … What are the properties of light? How have scientists used these to change our lives? And how do we use light to capture our memories?

Individual in focus: Ibn Al-Haitham, an Islamic scientist, mathematician and astronomer - and inventor of the pin-hole camera.

Every school booking The Science of Change will also receive a link to a package of downloadable follow-up resources.