Activities: Things to See

Take a beaker of water and a beaker of golden syrup and turn them upside down. Aside from making an enormous mess, you will notice that very different things are happening to each one. The water empties quickly in an…

Diffusion is the movement of something from an area of high concentration to a lower concentration. Imagine a long rectangular box with a wall in the middle separating the two sides. Crammed in one side is a huge swarm of…

What is a fractal? Everything that we see around us has a shape and structure which plays a strong influence on the properties of that object and its purpose on the Earth. A ball can roll because it is round,…

Thunder is the sound that lightning makes. Sounds simple but why does lightning make a sound? Any sound you hear is made up of vibrations, the vibrations travel through the air as waves until they reach your ear. This means lightning…

A microscope is an instrument that, using lenses, can be used for viewing objects that are too small to be seen by the naked eye. The term ‘microscope’ is quite a broad one translating from the Greek for ‘small aim’, and…

A vortex is a rapidly whirling spiral of fluid or gas rotating around its own centre. We see vortices around us all the time: from water going down the plug hole to tornadoes and hurricanes. When trying to explain what…

Our hearing is one of our most important senses, necessary for basic communication, speech and awareness. But have you ever stopped to think; what exactly is sound? And how do our ears actually work? Sound is caused by something emitting…

Clouds may look fluffy and innocent, but they are actually active places. At their most exciting, they can create the wondrous effect of lightning. Water and ice move around inside the cloud; forced up by warm air currents, down by…