Workshops

Holiday workshops: Fantastic Plastic (ages 9–11)

Explore the amazing science of plastic and make your own creative artworks and sculptures. 

Image credit: Ed Moore

We find plastics all around us and they can be really useful - but they also cause us problems. Join the Ri Demo Team to explore these fascinating materials, with a series of hands on and occasionally messy activities.

We'll be exploring what makes plastic so useful, and think about how we can reduce, reuse, and recycle our plastics. As well as making some natural and synthetic plastics, you'll get a chance to recycle plastics into an artwork, and make your own plastic sculptures from some surprising sources. A great interactive session for budding chemists or materials scientists alike.

Please bring your own plastic shopping bags to recycle into your artwork.

This workshop is strictly for ages 9-11 only. We reserve the right to refund or deny entry to those who are not in this age range.

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.

Support to attend holiday workshops

The Potential Trust may be able to offer financial assistance to enable children to participate in Ri events and activities if this would otherwise be financially difficult. Please contact Denise Yates, or at their new email address here

 

 

About Dan Plane

Dan Plane is a Science in Schools presenter for the Royal Institution and has worked in education for nearly 20 years. He's been a science communicator for the last 8 and his interest in all areas of science is ever growing. He especially enjoys bringing fun and excitement to the demonstrations he has been creating and performing in science centres and schools across the UK. Dan is all about getting everyone, kids and adults alike, to explore the past, present, and future of science, and is especially proud to be a part of the rich history of science communication here at the Ri.

Covid guidelines

Face masks are no longer mandatory and wearing one in our Theatre and at other Ri events is at your discretion, however please do not attend the Ri if you are displaying Covid symptoms or, if you have tested, the result remains positive. Thank you for respecting other people and their choices, and for helping us keep all of our visitors and staff safe and well.

Event terms and conditions