Hands on science – for grownups!

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Grownups like hands-on science too. At science festivals and museums we usually hover at the back, letting the kids have a go. So if you include experiments and demonstrations in an event aimed at adults, you might find that people love it – or even find it moving if they didn’t get a chance to find out how interesting science was as a child.

Here are some sources of hands-on science you can do safely outside of a lab setting. But watch out, grownups are almost universally worse at listening and following instructions as kids…

Messy Church Does Science – hugely popular, and easily adapted for adults

The Naked Scientists – where I learned how to make my hugely popular hoover bazooka and some other great demos

Extracting DNA from strawberries. There are lots of variants of this kitchen science recipe, including this one which uses vodka rather than rubbing alcohol (which can be hard to source in the UK).

Cool Science Tricks: 50 Fantastic feats for kids of all ages

Steve Spangler Science – you don’t have to buy the kits to do all the experiments…. This is where I found helpful instructions for the famous Menthos in cola experiment

And there are plenty more online!