Workshops

Holiday workshops: Crash testing (ages 12 - 14)

Harness Newton's laws of motion to design a car that can protect a potato crisp passenger during a real crash test.

Image credit: Tim Mitchell

In this workshop, participants explore how vehicles are designed to protect passengers during collisions. They will then put their knowledge to the test by engineering and adapting a paper car to keep a potato crisp passenger safe in a crash simulation. Applying Newton's laws of motion, they'll experiment with design features that help absorb impact and minimise damage. This is a hands-on, high-energy way to learn the science behind vehicle safety and motion.

For children who have just completed Years 7, 8 and 9 this term - please book based on your child’s current/most recent school year, not their new year group from September. This typically corresponds to children aged around 11–14 years old. We reserve the right to refund or deny entry to those who are not in the correct year group.

This workshop will include a 30 minute lunch break. Students should bring their own lunch and a drink.

Refunds can only be issued for tickets cancelled at least two weeks (14 calendar days) in advance of the event date. Please note that this supersedes our normal event terms and conditions. Please also note that Eventbrite adds a small booking fee to the amount paid for each ticket option.

About our workshops

Holiday workshops at the Royal Institution give students a hands-on experience of STEM topics (science, technology, engineering, maths) beyond what they learn at school. Working in groups or pairs, students will get hands-on to complete activities, challenges or projects which help them look deeper at the subject they are exploring. These workshops don’t follow the school curriculum but instead show students the many real world uses of STEM topics, expanding their horizons beyond the classroom to see the amazing possibilities science can give you. Sessions are led by experts from across industry and academia who will share with the students their excitement and knowledge of their areas of expertise.

For any queries regarding this workshop please email events@ri.ac.uk.

Event terms and conditions