I have organised and run a fair few science weeks in my time – and taken part in many more. I am seeing lots of questions from teachers and science leads starting to pop up on how to go about this and where to start. I’ve put together some thoughts and ideas to help you create a fun and engaging science week. I hope you find it useful.
British Science Week
British Science Week runs in March each year – this year it’s 6th-15th March 2026 – a ten day celebration of science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) promoted by the British Science Association (BSA); this year the theme is Curiosity – so it’s really broad and great for getting children wondering and asking questions.
Science Week Ireland runs in November. You could tie in your school’s focus on science with this week, or many schools run their own science weeks in the summer term after statutory assessments, perhaps tying in with Great Science Share for Schools in June (see below).
STEM Learning along with the STEM Ambassadors programme have compiled a huge list of activities and events that are taking place in March, including Mars Day on 3rd March. Accessible to pupils at home or in school, with teachers or parents, there is definitely something for everyone, and all activities and events are free to attend.
Getting started
Running a science week is a great way to:
- Raise the profile of science in school
- Increase science capital
- Increase engagement, enjoyment and motivation
- Involve parents and make links with the wider community
- Include careers information and increase aspirations
- Celebrate science
If this is your first time organising a science week, I would recommend starting small. A science week can easily snowball; there are so many ideas, resources and events available and it can be a lot of work to organise. Let the experience and confidence grow over a few years.There is no need to try to pull out all of the stops. Meaningful experiences don’t have to be all singing and dancing.
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I would recommend starting with the British Science Association (BSA)’s resources. There is always a theme each year – this year it’s Curiosity – and activity packs are now available to download, aimed at different age groups, including one for community groups. Their CREST awards (star for 5-7, superstar for 7-11 and Discovery awards for longer investigations) are also great for school or home too.
In 2021, they also included Science at home resources from sponsors Bayer and a poster competition is back this year too.
The British Science Association have also included a #SmashingSteotypes resource, with profiles of a diverse range of scientists. For more inclusive science careers and profiles, also see the Primary Science Teaching Trust (PSTT)’s A Scientist Just Like Me resources, as well as further real life scientists and STEM careers resources from me.
Themed science weeks
You don’t have to tie your science week in with the BSA theme. If you aren’t inspired by Change and adapt, Growth or Time (previous themes), you could run a space week or a crime scene investigation, centre your week around a topic from a visitor, or choose your own focus or a broader science theme. Find countless space resources at https://www.stem.org.uk/esero including how to plan a space week in school, Mission X and more.
Science week assemblies
A science week is often launched, or at least incorporates, a whole school assembly which serves to highlight the focus, create wow moments, celebrate and may include external visitors as well as children’s discoveries. It can also be a simple assembly telling the children about what they will be doing, to bring everything together and celebrate at the end of the week or even create a little fun competition between staff!
Live Lessons, zooms and virtual visitors.
There are now so many more virtual possibilities for engaging – either as an internal school zoom, google meet or MS Teams assembly, or by having a science show or workshops from external visitors. There are lots of Live Lesson opportunities too, including:
- BBC Teach Space Live Lessons
- Edu Encounter Ocean & Climate Live Lessons
- PSTT Science Week Online Lessons (cost applies)
- Dr Jo Science virtual visits (cost applies)
Whole School Science Investigations
You might want to create a whole school science investigation – a great way of building a sense of school community (and much easier for parents with multiple children so they can all complete the same investigation at home at the present time), and it also has the added bonus of providing an opportunity to gather data on progression through the school as well. You could focus on one of the five enquiry types and develop working scientifically skills. For example:
- Pattern seeking – Do bigger hands hold more sweets/beads? Can people with longer legs jump further?
- Observations over time – What happens to ice at room temperature?
- Grouping and Classifying – using different types of sweets? Younger children could divide into simple groups, older children could divide dichotomous keys
- Comparative and Fair testing – Which paper towel is most absorbent?
- Secondary research (perhaps less well suited to an investigation but a useful skill to develop as part of an investigation, along with communication)
If you’re looking for longer investigations for children to get their teeth into, especially for key stage 2, then Practical Action Schools’ resources are fabulous cross curricular STEM challenges which address the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The CREST Discovery awards are also longer investigations for upper key stage 2 and key stage 3.
There are also a number of Dr Jo Science investigations and challenges, as well as online science club resources, video workshops and activity packs.
Scientist hunt
A scientist quiz or treasure hunt is a fun idea to get children moving around the school collecting clues and finding things out – you could set up a different scientists in different places, or have different staff representing different scientists for the children to interview. This could easily be adapted for remote participation too. You’ll find lots of ideas for scientists and their discoveries in the Primary Science Teaching Trust (PSTT)’s Standing On The Shoulders of Science resources.
Competitions and Getting involved
Other engaging activities during a science week can be getting involved in competitions – either ones that you set yourselves such as science selfies – ask the children to share a photo of them doing a science investigation, or of them dressed up as a famous scientist they have researched, or external competitions or citizen science projects such as the RSPB’s Big Schools Bird Watch or the School Science’s The Great Bug Hunt, both of which also include resources you can use for other activities.
Science Reading challenge
Why not encourage some fiction and non-fiction science reading too? You’ll find a useful list of diverse science texts from Kathryn Horan, aka That Science Lady. You’ll also find reading challenge tips and support from the PSTT.
Carousel activities
In normal times, having each teacher provide an investigation and the children rotate around the different classes can be an excellent way to provide lots of different experiences, without creating too many extra demands on people’s time. This could obviously still happen in a virtual way – either with live lessons or different investigations designed and introduced by different teachers. See the Resources section below for ideas.
Science busking
Why not get the children sharing their science – older children could explain activities and get younger children (or parents) involved in the playground or after school with some mini science busking activities such as grouping materials, floating and sinking, paper planes, chemical reactions, bug hunts and more!
Visitors
You can also enlist parents to help with carousel activities and other investigations – tapping into the expertise in your parent body is a great way of exposing the children to new experiences. Science is everywhere and many jobs and industries are related to science in some way. This additional careers dimension helps to widen experiences and aspirations too and helps with meeting the Gatsby benchmarks.
Members of your local community and other visitors can also provide great experiences for your children. You might have local businesses, employers or universities you could invite to contribute, or STEM Ambassadors – volunteers who work in STEM sectors and engage in activities promoting STEM subjects and careers.
This STEM VIP booklet from SEERIH (The Science and Engineering Education Research and Innovation Hub at The University of Manchester) has great tips for making the most of visitors in schools.
There are a number of workshop providers (such as Dr Jo) who can inspire your children with fun and engaging hands-on science workshops in person or virtually as well as engaging with STEM Ambassadors, Skype A Scientist, LEAF from the NFU’s #FarmerTime, and I’m A Scientist, get me out of here during science week and beyond: Science is for life, not just for science week!
Science Challenges
Setting science challenges can be a great way to build engagement and discover new things along the way. During lockdown I posted 121 daily science activities, 24 festive/winter science activities and weekly science challenges, all of which use easy to find resources from home and are free to access. You’ll also find other ideas in the resources section below.
Resources
You’ll find a cornucopia of links, websites and resources for science teaching and learning at www.drjosciencesolutions.co.uk/resources – useful for science week and every week!
I’ve also written an article on Science and STEM clubs in February’s ASE Primary Science Journal which might provide some useful links (issue 166).
Some other resources that may be useful for setting investigations during a remote science week include: Starters for Science – short 5 minute provocation videos leading to a suggested investigation from the Primary Science Teaching Trust (PSTT) . Also from the PSTT are the Science For One investigations which are activity cards for investigations using easy to find resources at home as well as Starters for STEM home learning prompts from STEM Learning.
STOP PRESS!
***Edited to add*** PSTT have recently produced WhistleStop Science Week resources: ready to go mini investigations. If you don’t have the time or energy to trawl through all the excellent stuff out there, simply grab something off the shelf and go!
Great Science Share for Schools
Another invaluable source of support is the Great Science Share for Schools (GSSfS) – the award-winning annual campaign that invites 5-14 year olds to share their own scientific questions and investigations, to raise the profile of science in schools and communities, and inspire young people into science and engineering. It culminates in June each year – usually with in-person events for children to share their science with new audiences but is likely to be remote again this year. You’ll find a whole host of resources, recorded live lessons and expert-led CPD opportunities to help you get the best out of it. I’m a GSSfS consultant, so do get in touch if I can help your school to get involved.
Why not delay science week until June?
Science Festivals
There may also be local science festivals where you are that you can tap into. local to me, we have the Norwich Science Festival in February and the Cambridge (Science) Festival in March each year – and I’ll be there with my Wonders Of the Human Body interactive family show.
I hope this gives you some ideas and starting points to have an engaging, successful science week. You can find lots of other stuff at www.drjosciencesolutions.co.uk/lockdown-learning
Have a great science week! I’d love to see how you get on or if you’ve got any other hints and tips – tag me on social media @DrJoScience
