The thrill of a new exciting item to discover each day fascinates everyone especially kids and that is why Advent Calendars have become so popular! If you’re looking for an original advent calendar that helps you enjoy some quality time with the kids, then Esplora’s free online Christmas Science Advent Calendar is just for you! […]
Sadly, we’ve reached our last day of the advent calendar, but we hope that you’ve made some great memories trying out the activities just like we enjoyed creating them for you. Christmas is a time for joy, love and memories. However, we still wanted to celebrate the ‘act of giving’ by giving you a small […]
Create your very own Christmas themed automata Explore simple mechanical machines, tell a Christmas story and give life to your characters and creations by building your very own moving machine. Automatas are the perfect way to combine engineering with art. Get your tools and materials ready! Plastic cup or yoghurt cup Scissors 15cm or 30cm […]
Explore the science of pinecones and what you can do with them. Pinecones are very much associated with Christmas time. We use them to decorate a tree, a nice Christmas centre piece or even a vase full of them will bring you some Christmas spirit. But do you know what is the pinecone in relation […]
Create a Christmas chain reaction! The ‘Chain Reaction’ is a hands-on activity inspired by Rube Goldberg’s cartoons. Rube Goldberg was an American inventor best known for his cartoon inventions which illustrated how you can complete an extremely simple task by using a chain reaction. He never actually built the inventions he drew…but he inspired people […]
Create your very own stop motion video! There are a lot of art forms which we at Esplora Interactive Science Centre use to communicate science. One of them is short animations! Animations are a simple yet effective and engaging way to tell a story and to communicate a scientific concept or research. But what is […]
Fix Santa’s sleigh wheels Santa Claus has been experiencing some bumpy roads lately when he drives his sleigh on the ground. This doesn’t help him to travel quietly on land plus it may cause damage to the gifts he’s carrying. Help him out by finding the best shape for his sleigh wheels to reduce the […]
Spot a bird and build a birdfeeder this Christmas! Spot a Bird Download the Spot a Bird activity sheet from here Christmas holidays are the perfect time to go for a nature walk or to visit a nature reserve to spot some birds. The activity sheet includes six birds which can be spotted across the […]
Explore the Mathematical Art of Origami Origami is known as the art of paper folding. It is very much present in the Japanese culture; however, it is now well-known across the globe. Origami is a scientific technique as much as it is artistic. It greatly makes use of mathematical symmetry and geometry to transform […]
Holiday Chemistry – Make a pH indicator from poinsettia leaves! Today we’re going to be creating our very own pH indicator. But what is a pH indicator? And what is it used for? In chemistry, if something is acidic, we say it has a low pH. And if something has a high pH, we say […]
Use your creativity and imagination to create and animate a logo! When you’re using a laptop, tablet or mobile phone, how do you recognize the app that you want to use? Logos! Logos are extremely important to catch people’s attention and to help a product or a service become recognizable. Logos are used everywhere, even […]
Exploring the science of pinwheels Pinwheels are beautiful and simple structures that spin by means of wind energy. A traditional pinwheel spins when you blow on it or by a natural air current such as the wind. Have you ever noticed that there are mechanical structures that look like a pinwheel and have a purpose? […]
Science crafts & activities! Holiday Science Bundle is the perfect Christmas resource pack for kids aged 7-9 years old. Get them exploring, thinking and creating as they build a levitating panel, use coding to help Santa navigate on a foggy Christmas eve and experiment with Lava Christmas Balls! Download the Holiday Science Bundle activity pack […]
Let your imagination go wild and build Santa a new sleigh! Oh no! Santa’s sleigh is broken, and Christmas day is only a few days away! Can you help his elves build Santa a new sleigh? We all know how Santa’s sleigh looks right? It has quite an iconic shape and its easily recognizable with […]
Spot a constellation and make your own! Appreciate the wonders of the night sky this Christmas. We have two activities planned for you today. One of which is a short guide to go on a stargazing experience, and the second is a guide to making Christmas tree ornaments inspired by the night sky. Activity 1: […]
Artistic bauble painting As we were decorating our Science Centre, an idea came to mind and we came up with this project. how cool would it be to have a space themed Christmas tree? Therefore, we rolled our sleeves, prepared our painting kit, and got a bit messy. In this activity we will guide you […]
Build a house strong enough to hold Santa’s sleigh! If each gift weighs 1 kg, with an estimated total child population of 2.2 billion, Santa’s cargo would weigh about 2.2 billion kilos…and that is equivalent to 55,000 Esplora Planetariums! That is a very heavy sleigh! The challenge of this festive STEM activity is for participants […]
Create your very own Christmas coding ornaments! In today’s digital world, coding is as important as any other language or subject since it’s the language we use to tell computers what to do and nowadays computers are all around us. We hear a lot about artificial intelligence but for a computer to think on its […]
Make your own snowflake ornament We get it! Snow is just wonderful and so very Christmassy but unfortunately our climate here in Malta does not allow us to experience that. Snow forms when the atmospheric temperature goes down to below 0°C and the air is moist. The water vapour usually condenses into cloud droplets […]
Create a Christmas tree spiral Have you ever heard of the fact that hot air rises? In today’s project, we are going to prove this by using a simple experiment with a bit of creative Christmas flair. We are going to make a spiral Christmas tree that spins. The spin will be given off by […]
Activity 1: Grow this season’s special: Vetches aka Ġulbiena Here is all you need to know to grow your own vetches, which is a Maltese tradition during Christmas time. Vetches are very easy and fast growing plants. All you need is a few simple items. The vetch is a genus of plants that belongs to a […]
Build a catapult that could launch mini presents in the air. In this tinkering activity, we shall be guiding you towards building a catapult using simple materials. This catapult can be used to launch presents (tiny ones) into the air. Let’s say that we are building it to help Santa’s elves in packing up Santa’s […]
Build a Christmas Tree inspired by the Periodic Table! 1The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2020 was awarded jointly to two female scientists; Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna for the development of a method which lets scientists edit genes. Why is this important? Because researchers have been able to use this tool to develop crops […]
Investigation – sweets dissolving in different conditions At Esplora, we get curious on several things and subjects. Today, we were enjoying some Christmas treats and thought about the time it takes for different sweets to dissolve. Some of our staff prefer chocolate over gummies, some prefer dark against white or milk chocolate, some really like […]
Science crafts & activities for little hands! Festive Little Explorers is the perfect Christmas resource pack for kids aged 4-7 years old. Get them exploring, thinking and creating as they build a cardboard Christmas tree, help Curio find the presents, and make their very own density tower! Download the Festive Little Explorers activity pack from […]
Create an inflatable Christmas decoration Unleash your creativity by making your own decoration using science and art. With just a few materials and tools, you can create your own Christmas inflatable. An inflatable is usually a silly character that wobbles around with air and is typically used outside of large stores to attract customers. We […]
