Put on your hard hat for this engineering extravaganza! This month Tomorrow’s Engineers Week will be celebrating all the awesome things that engineers do which is why we’ve gone SUPER STRUCTURES mad. We talk to real engineers and find out all about their jobs, discover some of the world’s greatest animal engineers and show your kids how to build a suspension bridge with Lego and string just like the one in the photo above sent in by one of our readers. What a happy mini engineer!
With kids science magazine Whizz Pop Bang just imagine what your kids may one day discover…
Not a subscriber? Don’t worry, you can subscribe here or if you’d like to just buy a single copy of this issue go to our back issue shop.
In the current issue of Whizz Pop Bang (October, issue 15) we take a look at light and colour. We ask what gives things their colour? What are invisible colours? Do you know why flamingoes are pink? For lots of questions (and answers!) about colour and loads of cool experiments, order a copy of Whizz Pop Bang science magazine for kids click here.
Do your kids know about the northern lights? The northern lights are one of nature’s most impressive spectacles. These stunning coloured light displays are produced when particles from the Sun crash into the Earth’s atmosphere, transferring their energy into light. Also called aurora, these magnificent dancing lights are common near the North and South Poles.
We came across this eerie yet beautiful video of humpback whales swimming under the northern lights in Norway…
Off the coast of Kvaløya island in Tromsø, humpback whales swim beneath the northern lights. The brief scene was captured by Norwegian photographer Harald Albrigtsen for Norwegian public television (NRK). Cue the aurora science from NASA:
“The typical “northern lights,” or aurora borealis, are caused by collisions between fast-moving electrons and the oxygen and nitrogen in Earth’s upper atmosphere. The electrons – which come from the magnetosphere, the region of space controlled by Earth’s magnetic field – transfer energy to the oxygen and nitrogen gases, making them “excited.” As they “calm down” and return to their normal state, they emit photons, small bursts of energy in the form of light.
When a large number of these collisions occur, the oxygen and nitrogen can emit enough light for the eye to detect. This ghostly light will produce the dance of colors in the night sky we call the aurora. Most of the light comes from altitudes between 60 and 200 miles. Since the aurora is much dimmer than sunlight, it cannot be seen from the ground in the daytime.
The color of the aurora depends on which gas – oxygen or nitrogen – is being excited by the electrons, and on how excited it becomes. Oxygen emits either a greenish-yellow light (the most familiar color of the aurora) or a red light; nitrogen generally gives off a blue light. The blending of these colors can also produce purples, pinks, and white.”
(Above video and text from The Kids Should See This website)
Did you know… Astronauts in the International Space Station get to see a side view of the aurora because they are both roughly the same distance from the Earth
AWESOME FACT: Aurora also occur on other planets, including Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune
Did you know Whizz Pop Bang whizzes around the world to kids in many different countries? Yep, we have readers in Australia, America, Germany, New Zealand, Holland and Dubai (please let us know if you read it in another country and we’ve missed you out!). Kids learning English as a second language love reading Whizz Pop Bang because it’s fun and easy to read. Expat kids love reading it because it’s not easy to get hold of English magazines in some countries.
Now what’s all this about crickets in pasta? Well here at Whizz Pop Bang we actively encourage kids to be open-minded and to try new things, and with the need to find more sustainable sources of protein to feed our growing population, we’ve been giving kids the opportunity to try eating insects. Check out these super mini scientists at a school in Dubai trying a food of the future – cricket pasta!
Thumbs up from this student and her teacher 🙂
Three thumbs up and one sideways, pretty good then boys!
“Let’s try it together, ready? One, two…” They tasted it and liked it, deciding it really wasn’t that different to normal pasta.
Cricket pasta taste testers, everyone loved the experience!
Years 5 and 6 cautiously trying the pasta, yet all proud of themselves for trying something new.
Heads down, serious business… verdict was a yes!
Teachers giving it a go!
Not sure at first, but then a big thumbs up from this student!
“Ummm, well it’s kind of weird eating insects…”
Proud cricket pasta taster with her Whizz Pop Bang sticker 🙂
All smiles for this student and her Mum
“Crickets? I’ve eaten them whole!”
Made by Bugsolutely in Thailand, cricket pasta is a genius way to include sustainable protein in a quick and easy meal. Cook it and serve with pesto, with a tomato sauce or a creamy sauce and you have a nutritious meal and one that doesn’t require any additional protein.
Were your kids involved in a Whizz Pop Bang cricket pasta tasting? Let us know what they thought in the comments box below, or email hello@whizzpopbang.com. If you’d like to subscribe to Whizz Pop Bang THE awesome science magazine for kids just click here.
What’s On in September: THE BRITISH SCIENCE FESTIVAL
Saturday 10th and Sunday 11th September, at the National Waterfront Museum, Swansea.
Now this sounds like loads of fun; 2 days of Roald Dahl-themed hands-on science fun for all the family, what could be better?! Events include an Astronaut Bootcamp, 3D Space Show, Marine explorers, Splendiferous Science Show, Sealife Safari and LOADS more! They’ve even got a whizzpopping Roald Dahl science show with CBBC’s science communicator Jon Chase, pretty awesome huh?
Here’s what they say on the website: “We’re celebrating Roald Dahl’s centenary with a scientific take on his books. CBBC’s Jon Chase reveals the Splendiferous Science in Dahl’s tales and we’ve left a trail of golden tickets for you to follow and claim a prize… keep your gogglers peeled for everything from frightswiping Gremlins to scrumdiddlyumptious chocolate!
We’ve also teamed up with the Marina Market to talk about food. You can take a taste test, learn how to keep yourself healthy, and explore the chemistry in your kitchen. There are even some insects for you to eat… if you’re brave enough!
‘Marine Explorers’ venture out and investigate everything that lives in the sea. Get onto Swansea University’s research boat ‘Noctiluca’, which is moored on the quay at the Waterfront Museum. You can control an underwater robot, explore scientific survey equipment, observe underwater video footage and be captain of the ship.”
Don’t forget to share your photos with us on Facebook or Instagram and tell us all about the best bits! #BSF16
10th and 11th September National Waterfront Museum and surrounding venues including Swansea Museum and the Dylan Thomas Theatre Open 11am-4pm FREE!
Are your kids totally and utterly obsessed by dinosaurs? Do they dream about dinosaurs? Well at The Natural History Museum in London there are plenty of dinosaurs and they do attract some interesting fellow snorers at night… Yes every month instead of closing all the doors and saying goodnight to the dinosaurs, sleep tight and see you in the morning, the staff at the Natural History Museum invite families to come and have a dinosaur sleepover.
Dino Snore sleepover for kids at the Natural History Museum
Aptly named the ‘Dino Snore’ this special event is perfect for a special birthday treat, or indeed a treat for your little dinosaur expert who will remember this experience forever.
Don’t forget to take your Dinosaur issues of Whizz Pop Bang with you for bedtime reading! If you don’t already subscribe you can buy back issues here, issue 4 and 14 cover topics on Palaeontologists and How To Hunt For Dinosaurs.
Check out all the details on the Natural History Museum’s website, next available sleepover date is 3rd December so hurry and get it booked:
This month we have not one but two competitions for your budding scientists to enter! Up for grabs we have three copies of Robert Winston’s HOME LAB EXPERIMENTS BOOK and five John Adams Trading Co FORENSIC SCIENCE KITS!!!
What are you waiting for kids, open issue 13 of Whizz Pop Bang and get cracking. Enter before 5th September.
September is the ideal time of year for a stargazing party; it’s cheap, easy to host and the kids get to stay up ‘late’ which is always deemed to be fun in itself!
Inside issue 13 is the ultimate guide to the night sky, along with a pull-out stargazing map to help the kids decipher the constellations and find out how to spot Mars, and depending on the conditions, maybe Saturn too!
We’ve put together a party planner for your science party with a difference, including the recipe for planet cake pops to impress all your party guests. And don’t forget to order copies of Whizz Pop Bang science magazine for really cool goodie bags, order single issues here.
For your stargazing party you will need:
Blankets to lie on in the garden
Binoculars (and a telescope if you have one or can borrow one)
Flasks/cups of hot chocolate and marshmallows
Jam jars and tea lights to decorate the garden, and lead the way to the stargazing blankets
Planet cake pops already made and ready to eat
Glow in the dark stickers or glow sticks to play with together
Tell your guests to bring a jumper and a wooly hat so they don’t get too cold!
The ultimate evening to hold your stargazing party will be on Saturday 10th September as the Moon will be visible in the evening sky and it will be dark by around 8pm.
Errrrr gross! Slime, goo, rotting fish and the unimaginably disgusting are what you think of when you hear Nick Arnold’s name mentioned. Yes, the Horrible Science author is joining the Whizz Pop Bang team so watch out everyone, Nick’s armed and ready to saw off some legs 🙂
We’re head-to-toe excited about having Nick on board – what more does a children’s science magazine need than a brilliant science writer who gets everyone into the weird and wonderful world of science!
The results are in from our minibeast competition (issue 11, June) and we have five winners to announce!
Firstly we want to say thank you to all of you who entered. We had over 75 entries of awesome minibeast photos. We now have spiders, bees, butterflies, caterpillars, beetles, slugs, ladybirds, snails, dragonflies, centipedes and moths all crawling around on the Whizz Pop Bang office wall 🙂
Without further ado here are our lucky winners and their prize-winning photos…
Isla Gibbs, age 10:
James Grant, age 7:
Khadeejah Hussain, age 5:
Megan Whitfield, age 10:
Pippa Pang, age 6:
Congratulations to our five winners, your butterfly garden kits are on the way! If you didn’t win and you’d really like a butterfly garden kit they are available from insectlore.co.uk
Enjoy the sunshine and the minibeasts in your garden or park, and remember to handle all minibeasts very carefully and be aware that some might sting.
Would you like to know what makes the best bubbles?
Make a base mixture of water mixed with washing up liquid. If you don’t already have one, you can make a bubble wand using a pipe cleaner. Experiment with blowing bubbles, and then try adding sugar, baking powder, corn syrup or glycerin to your mixture, one at a time. Test how each ingredient changes the surface tension and affects the bubbles.
Have you ever wondered why bubbles form in soapy water but not in ordinary water? The answer is surface tension. The surface tension of water is too strong for bubbles to last – the water molecules pull each other together and the bubbles quickly burst. When water is mixed with soap, the surface tension becomes weaker and the liquid can be ‘stretched’ more, allowing bubbles to form.
