Christ Church Preparatory School and College Prep Science Week Day 3 On Wednesday, 6 July, Experi-buddies visited the school as part of Science Week in the Prep School. Experi-buddies taught the pupils about the solar system, conducting some fun experiments in the demonstration.

Charlie the astronaut, visited the planets within the solar system.  The pupils first learned about the cycle of the planets around the sun, as well as the cycle of the moon around earth.  Solids, liquids and gases were discussed. Following a very cold visit to Uranus, Charlie moved on to Saturn.  The pupils learned about density and the fact that even though Saturn is much larger than Earth, it is mostly made up of various gases.  Pupils conducted an experiment with a glass of water, a marble (representing Earth) and a polystyrene ball (representing Saturn).  The marble sank to the bottom of the glass of water, while the polystyrene ball floated on top of the water.  This simple experiment showed the different densities of Earth and Saturn.

Charlie then moved to Jupiter.  Jupiter has a storm on its surface that has been raging for hundreds of years.  The storm is so big that the entire planet, Earth, could fit into the storm.  The second experiment that the pupils did was to create a storm of their own, using full cream milk, food colouring and dishwashing liquid. Charlie then moved to Mars.  Mars has a number of volcanoes, and the pupils created volcanoes of their own.  Using bicarbonate of soda, vinegar and red food colouring, they watched their mini volcanoes erupt.

At the end of the presentation, each pupil was given seed paper with instructions on how to plant the paper, water regularly, and wait for the plants to grow. Pupils went outside to watch a rocket launch to bring Charlie back to Earth.  Using air and water, pressure was built up in the rocket. The pupils learned a great deal from the various demonstrations and experiments, having great fun in the process. Thank you to the Prep School staff and Experi-buddies for a wonderful morning.