Typically completed by 5-11 year olds, CREST Star and SuperStar challenges relate to everyday experiences. Children complete eight activities to gain a CREST Award, with each activity taking between 45 minutes and 1 hour to complete.
The activities are designed to be easy-to-run and low-cost. You don’t need to be a teacher, have a science background or have access to specialist equipment to run them. The packs contain helpful hints and tips for you to use, explaining the scientific themes and offering guidance on conversation topics for your children.
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GEM COSMIC Brilliant Bubbles Organiser’s Card About the activity This activity is designed to get children thinking about liquids, gases and bubbles. Cosmic has a new bubble machine. All the bubbles are the same. He would like different bubbles. Through this activity you will support children to: • Carry out their own tests to try and make different shaped bubbles • Carry out their own tests to try and make different sized bubbles • Carry out their own tests to try and make different colour bubbles Kit list • Plastic trays or bowls • Clean drinking straws – 1 per child • Bubble wands • Soft wire (e.g. florist’s wire or pipe cleaners) to bend into different shape frames such as a triangle or square • Bubble mixture • Food colouring What to do 1. Introduce the activity using the story. Ask the children if they have blown bubbles before, were they all the same? 2. Give out activity cards and equipment to the children. 3. Explain that they will be using the equipment provided to test if they can make different shape, size and colour bubbles. 5. Support children to conduct their tests and make their own records of their results. They could also take photographs or make drawings. 6. Ask the children to present their findings to the rest of the group, they can be as creative in their presentation as they want - the activity card suggests a bubble competition. 4. Encourage children to discuss their ideas and how to carry out their investigations. Prompt questions: • How will they make sure their test is fair? • How will they record their results?
Things to think about Children will get better bubbles if they blow slowly and gently through a straw. They will usually get bigger bubbles from a wand or a wire frame. A bubble is a pocket of air, surrounded by a very thin film of liquid. Water acts as though it has a stretchy skin. It is this that helps to make a round bubble shape. Scientists call this surface tension. The colour of bubbles is due to the light reflecting off the bubble surface and creating what scientists call interference patterns. The pattern and colour changes according to the direction of the light and the thickness of the bubble’s ‘skin’. Keywords • Bubbles • Surfaces • Gases Watch out! Children will create a lot of mess with their bubbles, so be prepared for this. You can colour the mixture with food colouring, but when the bubbles burst the children get sprayed with drops of food colouring, so this is VERY messy. British Science Association Registered Charity No. 212479 and SC039236
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