As part of the current topic on Particle Theory, Josh from the Explorer Dome treated our Year 7 pupils to a fast moving, 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.

Pupils had dry ice (solid carbon dioxide at -78C) and liquid nitrogen at a staggering -196C. 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 is 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 recently in class.