Polar oceanographer and dad of two Mark Brandon does science at home with his daughters. They have fun and investigate physics, engineering and motion by building handmade race cars out of cardboard, straws and a balloon. This experiment you can do at home with your children is great way to get kids thinking like scientists and engineers. Asking questions, modifying your kart designs, and racing against each other makes this a fun and educational activity.

In this clip Alison looks at mutations, and their effect on cells, organisms, and evolution. A message is passed along a line of eight volunteers in a game of Chinese whispers. The message represents a gene or protein and the demonstration illustrates how mistakes can creep into that gene in each division, each time a volunteer passes the message along. This mistake is passed on to all subsequent daughter cells potentially drastically changing the characteristic of the cells. Keywords: DNA, mutation, evolution Click the guide below for questions and activities

In preparation for the 2012 Christmas Lectures Dr Peter Wothers heads off to the University of Leicester to conduct an extraordinary experiment - reacting the most reactive metal in the periodic table (Caesium) with the most reactive non-metal (Fluorine). Due to the extreme reactivity of the two elements, Fluorine expert Professor Eric Hope is on hand to enable the experiment to be conducted safely. We believe this is the first time the reaction has been caught on camera.

A secondary school resource produced with the support of the Institution of Engineering and Technology to accompany this year's CHRISTMAS LECTURES. In this activity students get a chance to see the historic demonstration of Alexander Graham Bell’s liquid transmitter and discuss how the setup works, reviewing their knowledge of resistance. Students then get to build a working microphone from pencil leads and consider how to improve their microphone design.

This lesson for students aged 7-11 is about life on extremely long space journeys, and how to provide enough food and water to keep astronauts going. They are based on video clips of the CHRISTMAS LECTURES from the Royal Institution, the UK's iconic science series on TV. To use the resource, you'll need the PowerPoint presentation to show to your class, alongside the video clips, and the Teachers Guide to help you prepare. Lesson outline Step 1: Starter to link to pupil experience Introduce the topic of extremely long journeys by starting with talking about pupils’ greatest or most extreme experiences. Step 2: Develop through imagination the concept of ‘space tools’ capable of making food and water This section is set up as a mystery: what amazing, cutting edge technology could astronauts possibly use to generate their food, oxygen and water on a journey to mars? Encourage pupil’s imagination and then reveal simple ‘space tools’ in the classroom. Step 3: Main investigation to measure change across a semi-permeable membrane and two solutions of different concentration Pupils plan, predict and carry out a practical activity to measure and record the changes to a gummy bear (or potato stick). Step 4: Plenary sets a further amazing possibility Food, whilst amazing, can possibly be made in space. Water, whilst amazing, can be made safe enough to drink. What about artificial gravity? Leave pupils to wonder: could that be possible too? Video links Drinking urine https://youtu.be/qGRYKuVyEGE Making gravity https://youtu.be/JytmUHNuY48 Objectives Children will be able to work scientifically by: - Making systematic and careful observations and, where appropriate, taking accurate measurements using standard units, to make observations over time Children will learn: - That animals, including humans, need the right types and amount of nutrition, and that they cannot make their own food; they get nutrition from what they eat Cross-curricular opportunities: - Speaking and listening in groups This resource is part of Tim Peake's Principia mission education programme, supported by the UK Space Agency and ESA.

This lesson for students aged 7-11 is about what it's like to live in space, and what needs to be done to keep people alive in space. They are based on video clips of the CHRISTMAS LECTURES from the Royal Institution, the UK's iconic science series on TV. To use the resource, you'll need the PowerPoint presentation to show to your class, alongside the video clips, and the Teachers Guide to help you prepare. Lesson outline Step 1: Scene setter A discussion exercise focusing on the human essentials for life, linked to the concept of a vehicle that delivers to the International Space Station (ISS). Step 2: Explore through mime the effect of weightlessness Pupils work in teams on developing mimes that explore the effect that microgravity has on everyday activities. Step 3: Compare and contrast grid Pupils consider the similarities and differences between emergency health care in 2 distinctly different settings – on Earth and on the ISS. Step 4: Plenary runner game A quick-fire true or false game looking at the how healthcare is delivered on the ISS. Video links Weightless experiments https://youtu.be/W8XmnWNminY Astronaut medical kit https://youtu.be/mcqPzBKFNRg Objectives Children will be able to work scientifically by: - Comparing and contrasting two settings and the implications of these differences on humans. - Children will learn: The essentials for life and how living on Earth provides for all human needs - Cross-curricular opportunities: - Medical emergency response, who, when and how. This resource is part of Tim Peake's Principia mission education programme, supported by the UK Space Agency and ESA.

With the help of a new litter of Oriental cats, Alison Woollard illustrates the Mendelian mechanism of inheritance. Alison asks what the offspring of two short-haired cats will look like. In order to produce this mixed litter of short and long hair we learn that the adult cats must have had two different coat-length alleles, demonstrated using a mixture of coloured balls. Like the blue balls, the parent cats have short hair because it is the dominant allele. Keywords: Mendelian inheritance, phenotype, genotype Click on the guide below for questions and activities

In the second of his Tales from the Prep Room, Ri Demo Technician Andrew Marmery uses wire and a laser pen to recreate the famous cross-shaped diffraction patterns observed by Rosalind Franklin in 1952.

The Ri's Andrew Marmery takes a break from Christmas Lecture rehearsals to describe how he designed a built a life-size Ames room for the show. The distorted room was named after ophthalmologist Adelbert Ames, who invented the optical illusion in 1934. The floor, ceiling and side walls of the room are trapezoidal in shape but when viewed from a specific fixed point it appears to be rectangular. As Andy demonstrates, anyone standing inside the room appears unusually large or unexpectedly small.

Comedian and songstress Helen Arney gives element number 5 an image makeover.

Sir Harry Kroto relives his discovery of Buckminsterfullerene before talking about another groundbreaking discovery with Carbon - the double bond with Phosphorus.

Professor Alice Roberts explains why her favourite element is vital for life, but also important in death because 'it sticks around'.

In this fun, simple science activity to do at home with children, Sophie Scott and her son investigate static electricity. By rubbing a balloon or straw on a cloth or their clothes, they make balancing pencils, pens, and spoons move without touching them! In these experiments they discover how things with opposite charges attract, and those with the same charge repel. They investigate whether the phenomenon will work with a variety of objects and even a stream of running water, asking questions about the science at play as they go.

In this clip from the Ri’s Chromosome series, Aoife McLysaght explains that though every living thing has DNA, different organisms have slightly different versions of the DNA molecule. Aoife illustrates how genes are organised onto chromosomes and how chromosomes themselves are packaged so that they fit within the nucleus. She also shows how the packaging of DNA into chromosomes aids the process of cell division. Keywords: DNA, chromosomes, genes, cell division Click the guide below for questions and activities

A secondary school resource produced with the support of the Institution of Engineering and Technology to accompany this year's CHRISTMAS LECTURES. In this activity students are introduced to the science behind fibre optic cables. They discuss reflection in glass and water and investigate the critical angle for total internal reflection.

Using a demonstration designed to illustrate natural selection, Alison Woollard delves deeper into Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection. In a game of competing for sweets, Alison introduces ‘mutations’ and ‘adaptations’ to the competing children and demonstrates that some individuals are better adapted than others to collect sweets from the canopy. The winners are ‘naturally selected’ and are better adapted to survive. Keywords: natural selection, adaptation, evolution, competition Click on the guide below for questions and activities.

This video, taken from the CHRISTMAS LECTURES 2012, is an ideal introduction to the different allotropes of Carbon (including graphite, diamond, fullerene and recently discovered forms include graphene and nanotubes).

Biology lessons for 11-14 and 14-16 year- olds on the skeleton, physics lessons on structural strength, or chemistry lessons on calcium with short (10-30 minutes), medium (30-60 minutes) and long (60+ minutes) activities. They are based on video clips of the CHRISTMAS LECTURES from the Royal Institution, the UK's iconic science series on TV. To use the resource, you'll need the Teachers Guide for the length of activity you want, alongside the video clip. Video link: Bones in space https://youtu.be/OHDW1B6hQNo Short activity, view and discuss (10-30 minutes): View this clip with your class to augment lessons on: -The human skeleton -Bone -Life on board the International Space Station -Load-bearing structures -Calcium A worksheet is available with questions that draw on concepts in the clip. Feel free to distribute this to your class to be filled out after viewing, or simply use it a guide for discussion afterwards. There is also an information sheet with additional facts, figures, and explanations to help lead the session. Medium activity: Bone analogs (30-60 minutes) Tie the clip into a larger lesson on the structure and function of bone. Bone is a living tissue that reforms itself depending on the stresses it is put under. Without the constant force of gravity, bones deteriorate rapidly. Using paper and card, explore the relationship between density and strength and show the surprising strength of structures made from certain shapes. Long activity: Soft bones (60+ minutes) Explore calcium, the element that gives bones their strength, by turning chicken bones and eggs rubbery. This activity must take place over the course of at least two days to allow time for the reaction to take place. Consider beginning the activity before a weekend. These resources can be adapted for any class in KS3 or KS4 and link to working scientifically, biology, physics and chemistry English curriculum objectives. This resource is part of Tim Peake's Principia mission education programme, supported by the UK Space Agency and ESA.

Physicist Jim Al-Khalili focuses his attention on the very strange nucleus from an isotope of Lithium that only exists due to the 'weird rules of quantum mechanics'.

Physicist Suzie Sheehy demonstrates how element number 90 could power the latest generation of particle accelerators and potentially provide a cheap, safe and abundant source of energy.

Build a home-made lava lamp and use a surprising property of citrus fruits to explore the science of floating and sinking Olympia Brown does science at home with her daughter investigating density.They discover that an orange sinks when it is peeled and try objects from around the home to see if they float or sink. In this fun children's activity, prediction, and asking questions, help to explore the science.