CHILDREN SAY
The students of St James, Bevington and Hollickwood Schools in London and Hartside School in County Durham.
We did no work all day.
Today I learnt about atoms. It is so interesting that 1000000000000000000000000 atoms can fit in a 1cm cube.
My favourite thing today was when we placed salt on a metal plate and made patterns with a bow and vibration.
I liked the rays of light.
The salt on the disc thing was really, really, really fun, so was the light that made colours.
I also thought it was interesting that in a centimetre cube there is a septillion atoms. Finally the periodic table.
I learned a lot about atoms. It was really fun and I especially enjoyed the part where we watched salt make patterns.
Everything is awesome because we were part of a team.
I loved this workshop. I learnt so much. It was brilliant.
I learnt about what atoms are made of. I enjoyed EVERYTHING.
I loved the bumping. I loved when we were running. I loved the instrument and the light.
I enjoyed the part when we acted like atoms.
I enjoyed the spectra because it was cool and colourful.
I enjoyed that we have been learning about atoms and we have been learning science all day.
I think you should do 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 experiments.
I enjoyed everything because I learnt.
I liked making the books with the collages and I also liked being an electron.
Being an atom and meeting everybody in your team. I like everything.
It was really fun to see what scientists do and what things are made of.
It made me think about what I am and that I’m actually lots of tiny things not one big thing.
I like it because I know septillions of things about atoms.
I like most about today is that we did our lovely books.
I liked that you answered all of our questions, but then you taught us everything so we could answer all of our questions ourselves.
THIS LESSON WAS LOADS OF FUN! COME AGAIN.
I will remember this day very well.
GROWN UPS SAY
John Cook, Year 4 Class Teacher and Science Coordinator, St James School, Kensington, London.
Year 4s were immersed in a world of atoms for a day last summer. They learnt how small they were, how ubiquitous they were, what colour they were, what sound they made. They drew, wrote, made and danced, observing and understanding these extraordinary amazing atoms that make up our universe.
The children loved it so much we are organising a whole school atoms week this year.
The team created an inspiring day of learning and joy on a topic currently not covered in the primary school science curriculum. Thank you.
Parents and carers attending family workshop with children at Imperial College's Invention Rooms, Shepherds Bush.
Such a great workshop. It was clearly explained and the experiments were fascinating.
Really good workshop and great delivery.
VERY BALANCED, COHERENT, INFORMATIVE AND ENTERTAINING!
Good, interactive and engaging.
BRILLIANT WORKSHOP
Fantastic workshop! Inspiring for kids + adults alike. Thank you.
Fantastic workshop! Inspiring tour.
I loved the way it was very creative and was very explanatory. It was fun and educational at the same time.
Fantastic! Thought that the balance between experiments, activities and information was perfect. Amazing to find out about atomic spectra – and to see them! Liked the links to art, nature and our place in the universe. Thank you.
Thank you for this wonderful workshop. What I enjoyed: Well delivered by experienced teachers – venue – kids were well engaged.
Beautifully Explained. Wonderful morning Thank you.
What did I enjoy: Doing a parent child activity, Seeing the experiments and the barcodes (spectra).
Very engaging! Thank you. I learnt lots. Great to bring art + poetry in chemistry.
Fantastic. Very informative and easy to understand.
Very much enjoyed and was able to follow along with the children despite our basic knowledge. The experiments gave the children the wow factor and the information was delivered very well.
I really liked the mixture of art and science and it kept them interested as it jumped between.
Very fascinating to learn and understand Atoms and the periodic table.
Henry Hammond, Ogden Trust Teacher Fellow, Director of Science and Maths Specialism, Alexandra Park School, London.
Absolutely beautiful and exactly what primary science need! Research shows many children especially girls have dismissed pursuing physics/science and the related careers by age 9 hence the push for careers guidance and wonderful projects like this helping keeping doors open.
I have 11 local primary schools in my Ogden primary partnership and meet with their science leads on 19th September to plan the year ahead – I think there will lots of enthusiasm.
But in general what a lovely project and yes I would love to have some of my local schools involved as well as sharing it as widely as possible!
Gabriella Hinc, Year 3 Class Teacher, Hollickwood School, Barnet, London.
Thank you so much for yesterday. The feedback from the session has already been amazing. The children told me at break times how excited they were and I heard so many of them talking about it. We already have a happy parents.
I would like to thank you for being such an amazing team! You just get on with things. It was pleasure having you. I've already told my friends from other schools about you, so if you wish to go to other schools I could probably recommend about 10.
People like you make a huge difference in a school like ours.
The Ogden Trust
Read the Ogden trust newsletter about Hollickwood School's Atom Day here.
Jo Cox, Education Outreach Manager at the Royal Society and former secondary school Head of Science.
I have not come across any other type of schools engagement programme that introduces young children to the basic concepts of atomic structure in a creative and potentially cross-curricular format.
Whilst aimed at primary aged children I am sure there are a wealth of secondary school teachers who would welcome this activity for use with KS 3 children (11-14) who are tasked with understanding the principles and patterns of the periodic table with little curriculum time for exploring the underlying concepts.
Hartside School, County Durham.
We loved the day! The students were able to experience science that they would not otherwise get the opportunity to. They were challenged throughout the day to step beyond their comfort zone. It was very well organised, delivered and planned. I can't think of any improvements. All children engaged with the project; a child with ASD who usually will not engage in events delivered by outside adults decided to participate in the hands on science activities! The day was shared on the school facebook page so parents were able to enjoy and question their child about their experiences
Bevington School, London
The children learned all about an aspect of science that our curriculum doesn't expose them to at this age and it was great to see the children learning from other people and being engaged. Parents loved the little books they had brought home and loved that they were exposed to scientists. We loved our day and the children loved meeting real life scientists.