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A challenge to get people thinking about animal intelligence |
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Intelligence tests for animals. |
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Looking at different animal skulls to compare them and see how they differ. |
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Why do some animals have really long beaks? Why do others have really big TEETH? With our collection of animal skulls, you can find out how different animals evolved to suit their habitats - and how you are a lot more similar to them than you might think! |
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Explore the world of epigenetics, using pipecleaners and corks to model DNA and the chemical changes done to it to turn genes on and off. |
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Humans have 19,000 genes. How are only certain genes turned on in each cell so that brain cells express brain genes, but not heart genes and vice versa? Here we make fun chromatin models to explore epigenetics. |
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Looking at a variety of small creatures that you can find in your garden |
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Insects, worms, bugs and more: what lives in your garden? Get up close and personal and see for yourself! |
Please note: This experiment is not used on the summer roadshow |
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This experiment aims to introduce kids to a wonderful model organism, the Drosophila fruit fly. |
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You'll have seen some of these fruit flies before: these cool and beautiful little creatures have shown us how genes can be inherited (by following patterns of features like eye colours), and how genes work. |
Please note: This experiment is not used on the summer roadshow |
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Show kids how disease dynamics, with a model of Citrus Canker spreading through a population of orange trees |
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Exploring the concept of disease spread and biological modelling. |
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Breaking open cells of a kiwi fruit and making the DNA inside visible to the human eye |
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In this experiment we get DNA out of living cells in kiwi fruit. The DNA can be made fully visible to the human eye - no microscopes or magnifying glass needed! Done in less than 5 minutes in front of your eyes. |
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Cuddly bugs, props from a lab, and a hand-washing experiment |
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Bacteria are living things made from only one cell. You've probably heard about how they cause disease, but you might not know about some of the friendlier ones that are useful to us. Come and investigate our extra large cuddly microbe collection! |
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Get up close an personal to some parasites (well, preserved slides), and find out more about them... |
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Parasites are a massive problem for global health, particularly in the developing world. Find out more about these creatures, who get a bit too close for comfort! |
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Cuddly viruses and a few models too |
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Viruses are tiny particles that infect animals and plants - causing infections like chicken pox. Come and have a look at our cuddly viruses and hear more about what they do! |
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Examining a variety of objects under a microscope, including a variety of slides |
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All sorts of things can be viewed down a microscope! This might include the biology lesson classic of an onion skin, the shapes of salt and sugar crystals, the eye of the insect you found in your tent, a drop of puddle water... |
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Box of model cells |
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You'll often see these model cells helping to explain other biology experiments, but one day they may get their own solo careers... |
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Making model neurones from coloured pipe cleaners! |
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Neurones are cells in your brain, that connect to lots of other neurones. Make some brains cells yourself with brightly coloured pipecleaners and the expert help of one of our demonstrators. |
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Showing one of the transport systems in plants. |
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Combine food colouring with water transport in stem and flowers- you can then see where all the water goes! |
Please note: This experiment is not used on the summer roadshow |
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The idea is to look at how yeast grows and how it relates to bread making. It involves getting the kids to make bread dough. |
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Like all the best biology experiments, this is hands-on and messy! See what happens when you add living yeast to a bread mix, and don't forget to come back a bit later to see what's happened to your dough! |
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