New Zealand Science Teacher

Science fun in Te Puke

25/11/2015

There were plenty of whizzes and bangs at the recent Te Puke Primary Science Day, writes IGNA MEYER.

Everyone was invited when Te Puke Primary held their Whizz! Bang! Science Day on Wednesday, November 11.

The day was aimed at all students at the school, from year 1 to 6, plus any whanau members who wished to join in the day’s fun and learning.

The event began at 9am with a public competition to see which teacher could keep a polystyrene ball in the air the longest, using nothing but a hairdryer.  

Science guests Chris Duggan of the House of Science Tauranga, Dr. Peter Minchin and Dr. Nick Gould, both of Plant and Food Research, Te Puke, kept the score. Te Puke Primary School principal Shane Cunliffe went one step further by trying to keep a beach ball in the air with the aid of a leaf blower.

This resulted in a lot of laughter. The wind was the winner on the day.

Then the activities started. Each student visited six different ‘stations’ with hands-on science experiments.  

These included ice-cream making, ‘balloon air surfing’, film canister ‘rockets’, Angry Birds catapult-shooting, having a Monster Tea Party with kitchen chemistry and mixing up elephant toothpaste. 

The day ended with another house competition: shooting bottle rockets using an air compressor. It truly was a magical day with kids chasing bubbles dressed up as scientists and wearing goggles.