Some of the College's youngest scientists had a preview of the Imperial Festival today, trying out experiments at the Early Years Education Centre.

The children, who have parents and carers who work and study at Imperial College London, created jelly worms using sodium algernate and calcium chloride and made lava lamps using oil, water and a fizzy antacid tablet. They were guided by staff from Imperial’s Outreach team, which was set up to raise aspirations, change perceptions and stimulate an interest in science, engineering and medicine.

The sessions offered a taster of what is on offer this weekend at the Imperial Festival, where children and their parents will be able to pop into the Explore Zone to have a go at things like extracting DNA from strawberries and engineering with Lego, alongside opportunities to meet some of Imperial’s researchers and find out more about what they do.

The photographs below show the young scientists in action. 

"Who thinks science is fun?" ask Signe Liepina (l) and Dr Annalisa Alexander (r), from Imperial's Outreach Department. 

The children start work on their experiments.

Robin, four, uses a plastic pipette to add sodium algernate to calcium chloride, to create a jelly worm. 

Four-year-old Audrey holds up her jelly worm, assisted by Shreya Konnur from Outreach.



Four-year-olds Daniel and Isis admire their creations as the moment is captured on camera by Senior Early Years Educator Andrew Miles.

Marco, aged three, and Dino, aged four, test what happens when you drop a raisin into oil and water, with Dr Jennifer Cooke (centre) from Outreach.



Luke Bacon from Outreach, centre, shows children how to create a lava lamp using oil, water and a fizzy antacid. Also pictured here are (l-r) four-year-olds Adrian, Emily and Audrey, three-year-old Amaoge, and Daniel, aged four.  



The lava lamp starts to bubble over, to the children's amusement.