As part of the current topic on Particle Theory, Year 7 pupils were treated to an afternoon with the ‘Explorer Dome’, interactive Science show, in which solids changed into liquids, liquids changed into gases, and vice versa. One solid even changed into a gas by sublimation, missing out the liquid phase altogether.

They had dry ice (solid carbon dioxide at minus 78oC) and liquid nitrogen at a staggering -196 degrees. All of this generated a huge amount of excitement and, unsurprisingly, there were always plenty of volunteers from the audience.

The show included freezing flowers in liquid nitrogen and using a frozen banana to hammer a nail into a piece of wood. Popping film canisters filled with dry ice surprised the audience and there were balloons, shrunk in a bath of liquid nitrogen that re-inflated before their very eyes.

The show ended with a spectacular chemical reaction to show the energy in our food, in which a breakfast cereal combusted in liquid oxygen. Above all though, this proved a truly memorable way of understanding some of the new concepts introduced in class.