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Get practical with this series of activities aimed at younger children. Explore a range of everyday materials through investigations and explorations. Including: Which ball is the bounciest? Which fabric is the most stretchy? and which paper is the strongest?

Work scientifically to test the effect of different amounts of sand and water on the strength of a sandcastle.  Buckets, margarine containers, yoghurt pots or similar could be used to measure the amount of sand or water. They can be tested through observation, looking for cracks, falling down sandcastles or even stress testing by putting a piece of card on top and then a container and adding marble to the container until the sand structure gives way. 

Zoom out gradually on this object  and ask children questions about what they can see to develop children’ observational skills. It is also a lovely starter for an investigation looking at which materials are good thermal insulators. 

This short PowerPoint has some interesting pictures of some materials being put to unusual uses. It works as a great stimulus for discussion about why different materials are used for particular purposes. It may also be linked to the story of The Three Little Pigs and their rather choice of building material for their houses. 

Solving a problem is another good way to engage children with practical science. In this activity a chef has mixed up his ingredients, so children need to work out which is which by testing them and thinking about their properties.

Plan an investigation around a Big Question. Such as What are the best shoes for running?

This starter activity could lead into an investigation and/or D&T project where children investigate different types of running shoes and the materials which they are made from. Thinking about the types of runners and the different factors which influence their choice of shoe for running, including surface, weather conditions and the type of running they plan to do. 

Introduce dissolving with this colourful comic, which leads to an investigation on the effect of temperature on dissolving. As children often confuse dissolving and melting it is worth discussing the difference and providing examples of each. Melting requires heat and dissolving requires a solvent to take place. Further information and activity ideas may be found here

Children will often describe a solid as 'disappearing' when it dissolves in a solvent such as water, because this is what they observe. This activity is a great way of showing them that salt is still present in the resulting solution and how to recover. Children could use a microscope to observe and draw the shapes of some of the resulting crystals as the water evaporates from the solution and the salt appears.

These videos show you how to set up and run an investigation to find out turn dirty water into clean water. Brian Cox joins a class carrying out the investigation and then visits a sewage treatment plant to see how sewage is cleaned by various processes so it can be returned to rivers.

Finally use the context of space to investigate materials which block UV light. Find the best materials for a spacesuit to protect astronauts from UV as they carry out a spacewalk.