Summer is finally here and on the Planet Science website, there are plenty of summer activities to take part in! First up, why not make a splash with our ‘Swim For It’ game, here:
http://www.planet-science.com/wired/games/swimforit/index.html

You have to guide your swimmer around the swimming pool, completing underwater tasks and collecting coins and information as you go along. Just make sure your swimmer doesn’t run out of breath or he’ll be well and truly SUNK!

Of course, the best thing about summer is you get to spend lots of time outdoors. So why not make the most of the good weather and ask your parents if you can complete some science experiments in the garden? You’ll love the experiments on this page:
http://www.planet-science.com/outthere/primary/index.html

It’s certainly been heating up this past week, so here’s how you can make a thermometer of your own to record changes in temperature...

As always, you MUST ask an adult to help you with the experiment.

You Will Need:

• Drinking straw
• Plasticine
• Small, plastic, drinks bottle
• Food colouring
• A marker pen

What You Do:

1. Fill the bottle with cold water until it is about one quarter full.
2. Add a couple of drops of food colouring.
3. Put the drinking straw through the hole in the neck of the bottle.
4. Ask an adult to seal the hole around the drinking straw with the Plasticine. The adult can make sure that no air is getting through by blowing into the straw. If they hear a hissing sound then the seal is not good enough so they need to squeeze the Plasticine tightly around the straw and the neck of the bottle.
5. Ask the adult to blow bubbles into the water until the water rises half way up the bottle.
6. You now need to be at eye-level with the bottle and get ready for the tricky bit...
7. Use the marker pen to make a mark on the bottle of where the water is inside the straw. So look at how far up the water is inside the straw and make a mark of its position on the bottle.
8. The mark you just made shows how much water is in the straw at room temperature, so we can call this temperature measurement – ‘room temperature’.
9. Now, put your thermometer in the fridge. Wait for an hour. Make a mark on the side of the bottle of how far up the water in the straw is now.
10. Lastly, try your thermometer somewhere warmer, like a sunny windowsill or next to a radiator. Make a mark on the side of the bottle to show how far up the water in the straw is now.

What’s Going On?

At cooler temperatures, like inside the fridge, the air inside the bottle contracts. When something contracts, it means that it gets smaller. When the temperature is cooler, the water inside the straw drops.

If you’re the winner of that Hay-Wire competition then it might be because of your name. A recent study looked at the people who had won more than £500 in a prize draw, called the Premium Bonds, over the last 12 months.

The study showed that Matthew is the luckiest name, followed by Adam and then Daniel. The three luckiest girl’s names are Claire, Caroline and then Victoria.