NATIONAL Science Week was celebrated by several schools and communities around the south-west with a wide range of activities last week.

Merino Consolidated School visited Penshurst Primary School where the local students had prepared activities that they led the Merino students through.

These were based on their current work with the new Lego kits – Bric Q and Spike. The students created Land yachts, a pinball game, soccer kick and a cars station - all using the Lego kits and with various challenges to try.

At their weekly science class, the students of Merino Consolidated School also made ‘edible glass’.

The students watched on as the heat produced from the gas stove simulated creating glass by melting sugar instead of sand, effectively making their very own Roll-Ups to eat.

The children at the Port Fairy Community Services Centre had a great time engaging in chemical reactions, colour mixing, flight (aeronautics) with paper planes, sense of smell (olfaction) and water movement in plants (transpiration).

At the other end of Campbell St, at Port Fairy Consolidated School, the Foundation students enjoyed participating in science experiments both during class time and in the science specialist time with Ms Gray.

They explored reactions with lemons and Bi-Carb Soda as well as learning about weather and rain clouds.

At Cavendish Primary School, students in Foundation and Grade 1 participated in an online learning experience about pollinators: honey bees.

Students were joined by Mr Kengo all the way from the Liberty Science Centre in New Jersey, USA.

Through an exciting hands-on experiment, students were able to explore the work of bees by designing a pollination device.

Branxholme Wallacedale Community School joined with the kinder children to form into three groups.

They each put on lab coats to look the part and each group participated in different science activities.

One group made their own kaleidoscopes and explored mirrors and reflection; another group poured warm water into a plate with Skittles so the lollies were half-submerged.

As they began to dissolve, the children watched as the colour of the lollies slowly started to creep towards the middle of the plate.

The third group worked with pH levels and Red Cabbage water (a neutral base) to discover that its colour could be changed by adding either Bi-Carb Soda (an alkaline) or vinegar (an acid).

At Hamilton Gray St Primary School, their Open Learning Area was a hive of activity one night last week, with students and their families busily moving around the different STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) experiences on offer and receiving a stamp on their card.

Students participated in a range of different activities including making volcanoes, sherbet chemistry, travelling rainbows and using a dissecting microscope.