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December 2024 – Vikings
Welcome to the winter camp – Viking life – Check out Aquila’s winter encampment and learn some fascinating Viking facts / Arctic foxes – Learn all about these adorable creatures and how they get through those chilly nights / Make a Yule goat of yore – Traditionally, a Julbocken or ‘Yule Goat’ is made using the last bale of straw from the summer’s harvest, which was once thought to have magical properties. They look beautiful sitting under your Christmas tree as a festive decoration / Raiding the solar system – Learn about treasure hunting in space – Astra’s investigating the ethics of asteroid mining / Dr Chris van Tulleken discusses the Lloyds Bank Coprolite – the largest specimen of fossilised human poo ever found which belonged to a Viking – Valhalla awaits / Brainfeeders – Survive to 25 game / Bog trotting – Harvey’s investigating bog bodies making some horribly convincing pickled toes to demonstrate how peat preserves dead things using the process of osmosis / Odin vs Santa: Both ancient, both gnarled and bearded, both capable of magical surprises / Happy Jul! Before the Vikings began celebrating Christmas, exploring the midwinter festival Jul / Viking Taskmaster – Can you guess what Bad Thing Little Alex Horne has done? / Fiction – Annalie Seaman’s story based on traditional Nordic folktales. Ash Lad and the Mountain Troll / WIN a ‘Craft and Code’ kit bundle by Sniff and Snails and Win tickets to see The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical in London
November 2024 – Fireworks
Our friend Lara from Theatre of Science is here to tell us all about the history (and chemistry and physics) of brilliant bangers / Lightbulb moments Drones, hydro-powered light shows – the future of outdoor entertainment is certainly bright, but is it BETTER? / Bamboo Boom! The ancient Chinese used bamboo to make the earliest fireworks, but is it really worthy of the title ‘green gold’? / Thunder and lightning, very very frightening we think you’ll agree. But why do we see the flash, before we hear the bang? Calculata is here to explain the speed of light / Pop goes the easel! Polly’s making an excellent eco-friendly confetti blaster / Brainfeeders / Looking sharp! Pepe introduces us to some exceptional Erinaceidae, including hedgehogs from around the world / Should fireworks be banned? Fireworks night has ignited a debate for philosophers Philip, Phoebe and Shantel / A flash of inspiration – What is an idea, where do they come from / They’re LIT! – What IS a firework and how do they work? Harvey’s investigating rocket science / WHODUNNIT – Someone has sabotaged the mayor’s annual fireworks display. But who did it, and why? / The Moment, firework flash fiction from Amy Sparkes / Win book by Sharna Jackson The Nine Night Mystery /
October 2024 – Witches
What is a witch anyway? Think again. Here’s AQUILA’s very Halloween-y witch facts / A spell of unrest – AQUILA investigates witch bottles / Meet your inner wise elder AQUILA’s life expert Kate Daniels is here to introduce you to your inner wise witch, or wizard / Poison Garden Escape Room – Can you find the magic word to activate the antidote BEFORE it’s too late? / Learn all about James VI and I’s totally normal obsession with the weird sisters, here / Which familiar are you? Are you a mystical owl, a ferocious feline, a tenacious toad or a curveball capybara? Find out once and for all in this utterly silly, supernatural quiz! / Can you help get the correct wands to the whinging wizards? It’s this month’s Brainfeeders / Got me feeling jumpy Meet the psychic, horse-whispering toad wizards of East Anglia. No, I didn’t make that up / Cauldron cakes recipe – You’ve heard of fairy cakes, well what if those fairies were… EEEVIL? Check out these Halloween-tastic pitch-black bakes! / Taskmaster Little Alex Horne has a magical task for you to complete. It’s go big or gourd home! / The Greenstone, a gripping short story by Amy Sparkes / Win Horrible Histories Horrible Christmas / Win titles from Jennifer Claessen: The October Witches, The November Witches and The December Witches
September 2024 – Titanic
Titanic facts / What lives on Titanic now? Take a submersible safari with us to the ocean floor and the darkened deck of Titanic / The ultimate cruise ship – We’re exploring floating cities of the future and all kinds of nautical nonsense, here / Make your own pop-up Titanic! / Journey of an iceberg – What happened to the Iceberg that the Titanic hit? / All at sea! Rodentia Marsh-Brown is a mum on a mission: save her babies, build a rat raft and escape from certain, icy doom. Can you help this rat out in this month’s escape room? / Children of the Titanic – Did you know there were 128 under-14s aboard Titanic on that fateful night? What did the surviving youngsters go on to do? Find out here / Brainfeeders – Titanic puzzles / All hands on wreck! What job would you do on the Titanic? Discover your (probably less than) ideal occupation in this handy quiz / Metal detectives – Can you play forensic metallurgist with Astra and crack the case of the sunken ship? / Full steam ahead! Long distance travel isn’t as straight forward as it looks. Harvey’s investigating rhumb line versus great circle routes / The Peculiar Tale of Penelope Payne, a short story by Lucy Barnfather / Win Titanic themed goodie bag / Win Photocreator
July/August 2024 – Summer Adventure
What is the Three Brothers Jewel? Why is it missing? Where is it? Who has it? Intro to our summer quest / Awesome Arcades Join us for a jaunt around a traditional arcade looking at coin pushers, claw machines and other popular amusements / You might know her from all those mischievous rabbits in cardigans, but Beatrix Potter was so much more than that. Aquila peers into the past at the life and times of this code-writing, mushroom-investigating, convention-breaking LEGEND / Sometimes we take the path designed for us, and sometimes we make our own. Calculata’s investigating desire paths / Painting plein air ‘painting outside’ activity with Polly / Can you board this rickety old galleon and solve the pirate queen’s crossword? Test your puzzling skills in this month’s Brainfeeders / Check out Irish chieftain Grainne Mhaol’s insta for an ‘Ask Me Anything’ 16th-century style / King Arthur and the Demon Cat – Meet mysterious mega-moggy Cath Palug / Welsh Rainforests and the Mabinogion – Join EB and find out what’s being done to keep our ancient and folkloric forests alive for future generations / Lost wildlife Words – Do you know your hotchkins from your hornywinks? Can you tell the difference between a puddow rud and a scavernick? Learn about forgotten wild words and bring them back to life / Build the Ultimate Sandcastle! AQUILA’s guide to building sandcastles including the basic ingredients, building methods, tools and how you can build towers and arches / Beachcombers treasury – find out about mermaid’s purses, fools gold and Jurassic prints / Meet the shape-shifting selkies of Scotland / ‘Welcome to Whitby’, home of Bram Stoker’s Dracula! Learn all about the home of one of the most frightening stories ever / BBQ Science – Make paneer and pepper kebabs, and learn about the science of charcoal, flavours and evaporation/ The Song of the Three Brothers, an origin story by Freya Hardy / Find out what happens in The Three Brothers quest and add your solution / Taskmaster Little Alex Horne is back with a brand new Summer Adventure challenge and the results of the Spud-u-like task / The Promise – Fiction by Amy Sparkes’ / Win Quarto kids books and Horrible Histories Terrible Thames tour
June 2024 – Food!
Dinner time – Is eating with others actually good for you? Explore food rituals and robin Dunbars research on eating socially / Food that will make your face fall off inlacing a process called desquamation which comes from eating polar bear liver and casu marzu a cheese from Sardinia that is covered in maggots – kluwat nuts containing hydrogen cyanide and unripe ackee which contacting dangerous lies of hypoglycin / Eat the rainbow – rainbow foods and phytochemicals, antioxidants and free radicals – a guide to eating the rainbow / Foodini rainbow pie recipe / Sweet but deadly – the great molasses flood – 1919 and the huge storage tank that burst and flooded Boston, USA, killing 21 people and injuring 150 also exploring temperate and viscosity / Brainfedders – Snake snacks match the snake with its favourite snack, molasses maze and culinary crossword / Ice cream dreams – make your own ice cream in a matter of minutes with simple ingredients – exploring the science of ice / Totally Bananas – the history of the supermarket banana – including banana varieties and taste – the discover of bananas and Joseph Paxton and the Cavendish banana and Big Mike – Panama disease and the Gros Michel / The upper crust – tantalising toast art / What sandwich would you be – survey results / Just desserts – the pudding club mystery / How do snakes eat things whole – learn about mandibles and how snakes jaw bones help them eat they prey whole / The Poison Smeller – Fiction by Avantika Taneja / Win a Diddy Diners and Stroodles activity kits
May 2024 – Megamaths
Megamaths Facts – What are the zoomiest, massivest, loftiest and giganticest things in the universe? Find out here including Everest, the Hercules-Corona Borealis Great Wall and the mid-ocean ridge system / Supermassive Cicada Swarm – super swarms of billions of cicadas coming from a genus called Magicicada, or periodical cicadas – what does it have to do with prime numbers / Make a radial symmetry sculpture with lets make art / Wonderful webs – spider webs, food webs and the World Wide Web – Webs come in a vast number of different shapes, sizes and types; invisible networks of friends and relatives, spider’s silk, from enormous, interconnected galaxies, these surprising structures make up the world around us / The long and tall of it – using square cube law to explore scaling shapes and Alice in wonderland / Brainfeeders – the kraken awakes, which boat will get eaten by the kraken – web of fiction match fictional spiders to fiction they have appeared in / Chocolate grids – a chocolate twist on the classic game Battleship / How the leopard got its spots – What have zebras, leopards and cheetahs got to do with master mathematician and AI extraordinaire Alan Turing? – we look at his theory Morphogenesis to find out / What mega monster are you? – Which mythical monster are you? Take this ridiculous quiz to find out / Taskmaster megamaths challenge with scary but isn’t scary results / The Wall of Words – Fiction by Amy Sparkes / Win Kidzlabs Math Magic
April 2024 – The Romans
A timeline of the Roman Empire / Dinner party Poisoner – A roman whodunit / Gladiator Training Manual – a step by step guide – What will you become? A retiarius, a Thraex, a hoplomachus, a murmillo, a secutor or a gladiatrix / What did the Romans do for us? From roads and routes like Hadrian’s wall to selling street food from a thermopolium / Exploding lemonade puzzle and match up the Roman and Greek gods in Brainfeeders / Boudica’s Last Howl – Learn all about queen Boudica and the Iceni Tribe and their battle with the Romans in 61 CE / Make a paper plate Roman Soldier from Darrell Wakelman / Doctor, Doctor – Roman health problems and cures, from fixing toothache with mouse brains to curing a headache with an electric fish / Can you survive to 25 – learn all about the dangers of ancient Rome in this survival board game / Wheely powerful – Roman water systems including making your own waterwheel / The fall of Rome – why didn’t the Roman Empire last including plagues, Christianity, lead pipes and barbarians / Romulus and Remus – retelling of a traditional tale by Tanya Akrofi / Win History Heroes card game
March 2024 – AI
What is AI? Why is it good? Why is it bad? AQUILA’s introduction to all things artificially intelligent including machine learning and algorithms / Prediction Fails – Exploring famous predictions fails of the past including rocket mail and paper pants / Escape from the Robo-School of Doom – Solve six puzzles and piece together the numerical code to escape / What’s the best we can hope for? – From motion capture technology that can already replicate actors and musicians to the end of bullying – Let’s look at the best case scenario for AI / Get inspired! – How are young innovators using AI to help fight climate change? / Taskmaster AI challenge – Pineapple fact grapple / Could we use AI to help us communicate with animals? / Make a ridiculous RoboCup / What future is yours? – Take our terrific time machine quiz to find out / Why does AI have a hard time with hands? Harvey investigates the weird world of generative AI and text-to-image models / Win AQUILA’s Big Science Ideas / Amy Sparkes’ exciting short story – Three Maids A-Dancing
February 2024 – The Feel Good Issue
Happy Facts including Soap that could cure cancer, the pollinator passage and 3D printing to create urban habitats / Emotions and the human body – What are emotions? Happiness, sadness, fear and anger explained / The Feel-Good Molecule – how chocolate chemicals including anandamide, the happy chemical, and theobromine can change your mood. Including testing foods that can have an effect on your emotions / Mission Morale – How astronauts have good mental health in space / Funky Food – Make a ridiculous twist on a classic party recipe / Disco inferno sudoko in brainfeeders / Useless quests – using maths to work out pointless data / Why do we smile in photographs? Aquila investigates the history of portraiture / The Art of Noise – making abstract art, Inspired by Kandinsky, to music / Do animals feel emotions – learn how complex the answer is including investigations on if animals are sentient / Escape from PerfectLand – Can you solve the puzzles and escape its creep clutches / Jim Beckett short story Frankie and the Humans / Win The Caravan at the Edge of Doom by Jim Beckett
January 2024 – Sharks
Meet some excellent elasmobranch from goblin sharks to golf course gobblers / Sharks use electroreception to hone their prey – build your own electroreceptor / Make a hammerhead shark using a sock and test your sewing skills / The science of blood – Sharks can smell a drop of blood from a mile away – learn about the heart, blood vessels, banking blood and if human blood is different to other living organisms / Rambos riddles in Brainfeeders / Shark maths attacks – how sharks are good at maths – Calculata looks at Brownian motion and Lévy walks in the natural world / Greenland sharks thrive in rigid environments living up to 250 years old – Greenland sharks do everything slowly and swim one metre in 4 seconds / There are over 50 species of shark on the planet and very few that would bit a human but why do we fear them so much – the stories we tell, including the Indianapolis sinking and the book Jaws by Peter Benchley and the subsequent film / The history of swimwear from the attire used in roman bathhouses and knitted onepieces from the 18th century to Annette Kellerman’s one piece costumes and neoprene – discover all about swimwear in this timeline of togs / Which shark are you quiz? – are you a shorten mako shark, basking shark, Greenland shark or a hassled wobbegong / Taskmaster Shark challenge – game shark or duck and the results from Spies & Sleuths issue to design a spy gadget / Noah Weisz short story The Loud Girl / Win Cash by Rashmi Sirdeshpande
December 2023 – Science of Stars
Science of Popping Candy – Harveys is experimenting with space rocks / Mission stardust – how do you collect sonic dust from the coma of a 4.5 billion year old comet -Wild 2 / Lifecycle of a star – where do stars come from – brown dwarf – stellar nebula – massive star – neutron stars – black holes -white dwarfs / The Sirius mystery – The brightest star – the drogon people of Mali, West Africa have know about it for hundreds of years / Starman – The life and times of Ziggy Stardust / Supernova cookies – recipe from Foodini / Make a 3D rocket from Darrell Wakelam / Sparkly Shenanigans in space including make a starry night bath bomb / Are we made of stars – Bodies are made of different elements but where did they come from subatomic particles, protostars, supernovae and celestial ancestors / Orion the Hunter – Myths around the Orion constellation – Pledias, Scorpius, Taurus, Canis Major and minor, Lepus / Amy Sparks short story When you Wish / Competition A miscellany of Mischief and Magic by Tom Adams and illustrated by Jasmine Lloyd
November 2023 – Money Maths
Bird poop islands – An island made of nitrogen, phosphate and potassium-rich bird poop – learn all about the guano boom of the mid-19th century / Money of the future – bitcoin, cryptocurrencies and NFTs / Real World Maths – Maths jobs including astronomers architect interior designer and restaurant manager – Knights Templar – did medieval monks invent international banking? / crack the cipher and design a tooth fairy costume in Brainfeeders / Ponds shillings and pence – Learn about money pre-decimalisation and the UKs currency system / Silver and gold precious metals – useful alloys that make mirrors fights bacteria and is used in computers / Big Mac Economics – exploring the Big Mac Index currencies around the world and purchasing power parity / Taskmaster money maths money tree activity make a coin task and results of the recreate famous artwork task / Tooth fairy economics – use the facts and puzzles to gather information you need for your speech at the National Consortium of Tooth Fairies / Make a balloon dog money box with polly / Jenny McLachlan’s short story The Case of the Red Moustache Part Two / Win Think Like a Boss: Discover the skills that turn great ideas into CASH by Rashmi Sirdeshpande
October 2023 – Spies & Sleuths
Excellent Echolocation – dolphin detective powers including echo of clicks using reflective sound inspiring sonar and night vision goggles / Are our computers spying on us – Philip and Phoebe debate are targeted adds online a good or bad thing permission and internet law online privacy sharing information / Lair of Doom – Figure out the super hard puzzles and figure out the counter code before international villain Fingers McFingers carries out his evil plan / Can corvids – crows are intelligent and so is the whole corvid family including rooks, jays, magpies and ravens / Draw an ultimate spy hideout and reveal the truth identity of your arch enemy in Brainfeeders / Taskmaster Spies & Sleuths challenge reveal the shoe stealing culprit including summer joke entries / Hidden Figures – A Timeline of Disguises the history of disguise inducing ninja warfare, the Royal Oak and Sir Paul Dukes / Make your own invisible ink / Spy Tech Battle – Shoebox seismograph / The art of espionage – why do artists make great spies – because artists have great observational skills / Jenny McLachlan’s short story The Case of the Red Moustache Part One / Win Horrible Histories Christmas on tour
September 2023 – Art Show
The science of the mind’s eye – phantasia and visually pictures in your mind / Make a mighty art vest to wear in galleries / World’s weirdest art stunts including shredding a Banksy and Marcel Duchamp’s the Fountain – a urinal turned into art / Check out some interesting chemistry with Pip & Pop edible art crystals / match the sculptor to the sculpture in Brainfeeders / Jobs in the Art World including gallery director, graphic designer, blacksmith and content creator / Turners in Town – The Turner Prize at Eastbourne Towner Gallery – Jesse Darling – Ghislaine – Rory Pilgrim – Barbara Walker / The Curators Disaster – exploring area with Calculata by putting on your own art exhibition including a template of shapes / Can you make it through the art show to winning the L-urner prize? – Play hilarious art board game / Science of Paint – with the three basic ingredients pigment – binder – solvent / Taskmaster strike a pose art show challenge / Josette Reeves short story Inside Doomacre / Win Art is Everywhere by Joe Haddow
July/August 2023 – Festivals & Folklore
Explore the art of drumming with Kwame Bajoki-Hume from African Activities / Make Snack Hacker George Egg’s campfire calzone / Taking a look at some of the strangest festivals on earth / Rock and roll myth busters – Did a British electronic band called The KLF really burn a million pounds on a remote Scottish island? Are London’s parakeet population really Jimi Hendrix’s responsibility? / Happy birthday to US! AQUILA is 30 years old this month / Explore the science of Portaloos, and have a go at Harvey’s tasty and informative but ultimately extremely gross Bristol Stool Chart experiment / Spinning a yarn – Learn how to tell a truly brilliant story with help from the tricksy spider god Anansi. Read about the origin of stories with the story Anansi and the Box of Stories / Festivals in space – The similarities in constructing an extraterrestrial habitat and organising a rock festival / Werewolf Fest – Collaborative problem-solving activity / Amazing mazes – Handy tops to solve any maze puzzle / Taskmaster’s assistant Little Alex Horne is back this month, with an Edinburgh Festival Fringe challenge / Festival show personality quiz / Discovering Celtic druids / Investigating the history of festivals around the world / Dr Jess French is here to answer questions about glow in the dark animals bioluminescent animals / Polly’s making a Green Man crown with twigs and paper foliage / Fiction – Chitra Soundar’s touching short story Just Like Krishna / Win Gourmet Marshmallow S’mores Gift Set for at-home festival snack vibes; a hardback book Wild Child: Recipes and Inspiration for Cooking in the Great Outdoors with Kids for seriously exciting outdoor grub AND a Psychi Barefoot Slackline Funline Jibline Kit
June 2023 – Fossils & Rocks
Five fossils to make you say wow from duelling dinosaurs found in Montana to Turkana Boy / Bonewars – Meet Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh squabbling scientist of the wild, Wild West / Pollen Detectives – Science of palynology the study of carbon-based microscopic life / Brainfeeders – including quick maths and draw an enormous ammonite / The book of everything – The story of life on Earth by exploring the fossil record / Fossils in folklore – myths and legends from around the world of the evidence of the existence of dinosaurs – tales of ammonites trilobites and fossilised sea urchins tell the tales of fairy stones and cyclops / Taskmaster Fossil challenge with results from the supersize snacks / Bin Wars – Be a waste watching detective / Cretaceous Creations – chalk marbling activity / Fiction – The Golden Tomb by Juliana Penkova / Win Ultimate Rock, Mineral and Fossil Activity kit and Nature’s treasures
May 2023 – Manga
Welcome to Manga – learn why Manga is read back to front, why big eyes feature so prominently and everything else you need to know / Monster Monster Harvey is making an Ames room with the help of gigantic lizard masters in this perspective science experiment / Snow monkey – Macaque facts with Dr Jess French / Foodini Club bento box recipes / The surprising history of manga / Taskmaster drawing by kanji characters challenge with results from the spinning challenge / How to Draw Manga Vol 2 with Takayo Akiyama / Dr Bug – How Satoshi Tajiri the creator of Pokémon started out as a bug collector / Fiction – All the Time in the World by Iqbal Hussain / Launching AQUILA NEWS / Win Foodini Seasonal Club / Win The Wizard of Oz theatre tickets / Bonus Article alert – Japan’s Joy Dispensers – find out more about vending machines
April 2023 – Giants
The Antarctic Blue Whale – find out more about the worlds biggest animal a critically endangered species and how their population is rising again after becoming a protected species / Taskmaster GIANT challenge with results from the Imaginary friend challenge / Make a Ginormous head using a lampshade and papier mache with Polly / Brainfeeders / Turtle Power – Learn about the ancient and modern stories of the world turtle / Welcome to the Realm of Tiny Giants – Learn about giant molecules exploring atoms, bonds and polymers and how giant molecules are made up of thousands of atoms joined together / Banana for Scale – Exploring scale – the Ebinghaus illusion – Moon illusion – Experiment with illusion photographs / Escape from the Giant’s Pet Shop – Crack the code to escape / Fiction – The Beast of Loch Bess by Josette Reeves / Win a copy of Stink Worst Fairy Ever by Jenny Mclachlan
March 2023 – Ingenious Engineering
The Great Engine Debate – Find out how electric cars have been around for 100 years and discovering how an electric motor works thanks to electromagnetism / Check out our selection of the world’s most terrifying and terrific trains and train tracks including the Devil’s Nose and the Flying Scotsman / Make a steampunk inspired puff-powered balloon car / Bicycle Railways – Good inventions or bad inventions discovering Arthur Hotchkiss’s bicycle railway and / The Real McCoy – the story of Elijah McCoy looking into the life and times of a ground breaking engineer / Taskmaster Engineering challenge / Make a beaver automaton using mechanical knowledge / The Rise and Fall of Tricky O’Toole – Fiction by Lucy Barnfather / Win a Thames and Kosmos Roller Coaster Engineering
February 2023 – Friendship!
Mysteries of the wood wide web – trees have a social network made of fungus buried beneath the forest floor – they use the mycorrhizal network like a social media platform – mother tree / Carbon Conga – Harvey gets to grip with chemical bonds – make a diamond and touch screen graphene with sweets and cocktail sticks / One of the pack – Dr Jess French explains the relationships of wolves and how they live in packs / Buddy Up – create your own friendship recipe – Dr Julia Clements helps us to be a good friend in collaboration with Children’s Mental Health Week 2023 / Taskmaster Friendship challenge / You’ve got a friend in me – investigating the power of fictional friendships and imaginary friends / Dunbar’s Number – learning about evolutionary psychologist Robin Dunbar and his famous number – investigating how measuring the neocortex determines how many friends and connections we have / Make a friendship book / Trapped – Fiction by Ben Davis / Win a copy of My Dad is Definitely Not a Crime Lord by Ben Davis
January 2023 – Science of Colour
Why are flamingos pink – cartonoids beta-carotene uropygia gland all play a part in explaining why flamingos are pink / Anish Kapoor and Stuart Semplet squabble over Vantablack in Colour Wars / Taskmaster Colour Challenge / The Road to Woad – All about the dye indigo and the plant Isatis tinctoria the pigment woad gets its blue colour from – used to dye fabrics and people the picts and the methods tribes like the iceni used to dye their skin – how woad was used in the Bayeux Tapestry and the Lindisfarne Gospels / Pigment Hunters – Harvey’s experiment looking at chromatography and exploring primary, seconday and tertiary colours / Colour Me Bauhaus – Investigating the life and ideas of colour theorist Josef Albers – using squares of colour paper to create optical art / 31 days of colourful fun / The Ice Prison Part Two story by Amy Sparkes / Win Let’s Make Art
December 2022 – Wild Winter
Wild Winter Sports – Rundown of the world’s weirdest winter sports – including wok racing and skibob / Snack Hacker Baked Alaska with comedian and cook George Egg / Blue Lagoon – Exploring the geothermal marvels of the Blue Lagoon in Iceland with a potato based salty experiment / People the world – this history of human migration / Lighting up the skies – witness the wonders of the aurora and learn all about plasma physics of Alfvén waves / Snowy owls – fearsome predator of the Arctic tundra / Big Silly Wild Winter Shenanigans / Wild Wintering – A handy guide to what animals do in the coldest months / Avalanche – Investigating avalanches and make your own mountainous mathematical mishap / The Ice Prison story by Amy Sparkes / Win a frog 69 bike
November 2022 – Showstoppers
Kabuki Kaboom – Japanese theatre art / Make a flying trapeze / Magic bubbles – Experiment making magical touchable bubbles / Off by heart – The science and dram of leaning lines / Doctor Doctor – Investigating the history of surgical theatre / Stage Fright – Fight or flight response hypothalamus adrenaline pituitary gland adrenal cortex – overcoming stage fright with professional hints and tips / Break a leg Cordelia crumble – Examine the deadly dress rehearsal and solve the mystery – Alas poor Yorik story by Josette Reeves / Win Aquila Mystery Mail – Indigo Bing and the missing mind disc / Win Demon Dentist by David Walliams
October 2022 – Spooky
Flying Ghost Experiment – Make a tea bag ghost investigating convection currents / Zombie Apocalypse – SIR model and maths to predict the outcomes of a zombie attack / Harry Houdini – Expert illusionist and escape artist and his team of psychic detectives / Monster Bunch – Revolting monster creatures from around the world / Nebulae – Celestial Spooks – Star Graveyards / Make Pompeii – Werewolf Puppet / Sensational Spiderwebs / The Empty Box story by Amy Sparkes / Win Dead Good Detectives by Jenny McLachlan
September 2022 – Pompeii
A Walk Through Ancient Pompeii – A voyage to Pompeii – Travel through the forum – Temple of Jupiter – Mount Vesuvius – odeon palestra colonnade amphitheatre / Vesuvius – A Timeline – Early Warnings beginning 5 February CE 62 / Meet Jazmin Scarlett – VOLCANOLOGIST! – learning how the subsurface and surface of volcanoes work – geothermal energy Research Stromboli Volcan de Fuego pyroclastic flows / Floating Rocks and Chocolate Rafts – rafts of floating rock made from pumice chocolate raft experiment / Muddled Mosaic Puzzle – Can you put the mosaic back together / Make Pompeii – Diorame / A Pompeii party – Celebratory foods ancient Romans Foodini Roman Bread recipe / Get the Look Pompeii – Mosaics basic bathrooms finishing touches frescoes portraits interior design moodboard / Keep Scrolling – The Charred Villa of the Papyri / Some like it hot – what weird volcanic creature are you – weirdo extremophiles quiz how would you survive a volcano / The Mountain that cried fire and smoke story by Iqbal Hussain / Win Foodini Seasonal Club Pack
July August 2022 – Time Travel
Pack Your Bags – Really going somewhere – Time-traveller’s kitbag – select 12 objects to complete a trip from beginning to end of universe / Time-travelling trees – carbon dating dendrochronology isotope dendrochronology photosynthesis mass spectrometer / Your birthday in space – Gregorian calendar day and year length on other planets / Big Silly Shenanigans In Time and Space – Activities and Puzzles / Make your own cardboard time machine / An Adventure in Egypt – walking with goddesses – Mut Sekhmet Hathor Hatshepsut / Let’s debate Eternity / Oskar and the Giants story by Kate Walker / Zipp zapp wooosh! – Delia Derbyshire explorations in sound Doctor Who theme / A Brief History of Time machines – The Clock That Went Backward by Edward Page Mitchell / Terrific time dilation – Joseph Hafele Richard E Keating atomic clock Theory of relativity Theory of special relativity / Deep space snoozing – Human hibernation cryosleep torpor / Drawing in museums / Ready Steady Slow! – Sloths Georges Buffon / Invisible history – Conserving old smells Dr Cecilia Bembibre volatile organic compounds solid phase micro-extraction carbon sorbent tubes gas chromatography odour analysis / Perplexing paradoxes – Penrose Triangle Mobius Strip Coastline Paradox Missing Square How long is a piece of string? / Sun Dial It Up – make a sundial / How I Broke My First World Record on the Chariot of Alexander the Great story by Noah Weisz / Win Dr Janina Ramirez Goddess Book
June 2022 – Solar Science
Sol mates – Sun gods and goddesses Re Amun-Ra Apollo Sol Invictus Sol Huitzilopochtli Inti Surya Malina Seqinek Amaterasu / Sizzling solar power pioneers – Becquerel photovoltaic effect Volta Mouchot Smith selenium photoconductivity Grylls Adams Evans Day Fritts Heinrich Hertz photoelectric effect Einstein / Mellow yellow – Painting with sunshine turmeric powder ultraviolet light substantive dye mordant adjective dye / Sun spotting – Hans Lippershay solar winds aurora observing the Sun safely / All hail the mighty Sun King – Louis XIV Versailles royal routine / Sun salutations – make your own solstice balancing sculptures / Chasing the Sun at Jellyfish Lake archipelago Palau Eli Malk sea anemones zooxanthellae photosynthesise mutualism / Solstice dreams in Milton Keynes – Derek Walker Pyramid of Khafre Giza Light Pyramid / Escape from the ice-cream van of doom – solve the puzzle to escape the van / The Bad Luck Bicycle story by Josette Reeves / Win Horrible Histories Terrible Thames River Cruise Tickets
May 2022 – The Green Issue
Marvel-lous plant power – mouse-ear cress sandbox tree hammer orchid thynnid wasp giant padma deadly nightshade / The Green Issue – climate change carbon dioxide methane nitrous oxide renewable energy solar power wind power / Reuse and refuse – timeline of recycling Bronze Age spolia Hadrian’s Wall China paper rag and bone shoddy palimpsests / Reach for the sky – sunflowers pith xylem phloem apical dominance apex auxin indole-3-acetic acid IAA artificial selection germination cotyledons true leaves gibberellins / Make – Plarn basket – yarn made with plastic bags / Ancient eco-warriors – soil erosion manure Pliny the Elder’s Natural History Seneca Machu Picchu terraces / It’s all green to me – light wavelengths trichromatic vision tetrachromatic cones colour vision deficiency / AQUILA’s Go Green board game / Little rotters – making your own compost / The Last Firefly story by Amy Sparkes / Win Book bundle – Make This Book Wild, Let’s Save Our Planet: Forests, Journey To The Last River, The Lost Book Of Adventure, A World Full Of Nature Stories
April 2022 – Chocolate
Want a hot chocolate? – Olmecs Mayans caffeine Aztecs itzpacalatl Bernardino 60 years studying chocolate / Are you a Supertaster? – taste buds filiform papillae fungiform papillae vallate papillae foliate papillae taste groups umami Do more taste buds make you a supertaster? experiment / As useless as a chocolate teapot? – useless or poor inventions / Mushroom chocolate cakes – Foodini recipe / Scrumdiddilyumptious! – Would Wonka’s chocolate room work? isomalt Hans van Doorn glucosinolate miracle berry Synsepalum dulcificum protein miraculin / Let’s Debate – Taste connoisseurs philosophers art critics / Home Sweet Home – George Cadbury Quakers philanthropist Bournville / Catacombs candy conundrum – sweetshop logic puzzle / A pocket full of beans – Bioko Ghana Gold Coast Tetteh Quarshie / Chocolate coins – cacao and currency barter / The Egg story by Amy Sparkes / Win Seed & Bean hamper 18 bars of chocolate plus Noni and the Great Chawwwklit Mystery by Dermot Whelan and How Does Chocolate Taste on Everest? by Leisa Stewart-Sharpe, illus. Aaron Cushley
March 2022 – Mysterious Maths
Count us in – History of counting Ishango bone tally marks Sumeria base-10 decimal system Oksapmin base-27 Tzotzil base-20 Brahamagupta calculus / It’s a mystery! – mathematical mindbenders Ham sandwich theorem Perfect numbers Pi rounded up Dantzig proves maths theorems Fermat’s Last Theorem Professor Andrew Wiles / Dangerous Ratio – Hippasus of Metapontum Pythagoreans tetractys rational and irrational numbers / Hotel Infinity – David Hilbert properties of infinity / Murder at Mallory Mansions – use the clues to solve this hotel murder mystery / Numbers stations – dawn of radio electromagnetic radiation wavelengths Marconi Cold War One-Time Pad / Drake Equation – Frank Drake search for extra-terrestrial life Arecibo message / A-maizing mystical messages – Crop circles cereologists make your own mini sand circle / Redshift raisin cakes – Hubble-Lemaitre Law redshift Doppler effect Make redshift raisin cakes / Sully and the Ropes story by Freya Hardy / Win Signed copy of Beyond Belief by Alex Woolf, illustrated by Jasmine Floyd plus bespoke print by her
February 2022 – Brilliant Birds
Eggcellent egg lander – dropping a fragile object from a great height gravity air resistance inertia engineering design cycle / Fantastic feathers – insulation waterproofing down contour rachis quill vane barbs barbules preening gland crude oil spills hypothermia – experiment to explore the effect of oil on feathers / Disappearing dodos – Mauritius walghvogel disgusting bird symbol of extinction / Make a pecking hen automaton / Egg-straordinarily excellent eagles – eagles in the UK / Magic numbers – murmuration maths temporal resolution swarm robotics Make a stop-motion murmuration / One fowl swoop – history of chickens red junglefowl dermal hyperpigmentation / This quiz is a HOOT! – Fun quiz – what type of bird are you? / Frida and her parrots – Frida Kahlo La Casa Azul dreamscapes parrots in Hindu mythology Kama Surrealists surrealism Hunt Slonem Emily Carr Tsuguharu Foujita / Prince Maurice’s Parrot story by Adam Ferner / Win Big Bird Spot, Atlas of Amazing Birds, Atlas of Amazing Migrations books by Matt Sewell, Belle bird feeder and suet balls
January 2022 – Robotics
Greek geeks and Roman robots – awesome ancient automata Archytas Daedalus Hephaestus Talos robo-cop Philo Hero mechanical birds in Pompeii / Uncanny Valley – Masahiro Mori humanoid Sophie from China with Saudi Arabian passport Telenoid R1 Diego San CB-2 Atlas Spot / Vroom! Make a motorised car – circuit diagrams shaft rotor electromagnetic field attract repel traction / Biomimetics – biomimicry soft robots / Let’s debate – Paperclip Maximiser thought experiment Luddites Nick Bostrom N. Katherine Hayles Donna Haraway / Robot rules – Isaac Asimov Three Laws of Robotics Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council EPSRC Five Rules of Robotics / Paranoid android – anthropomorphism We the Curious Nathalia Gjersoe / Escape the Smartbot Supermarket – puzzle to find password and evade rogue robots / Make a marvellous moving matchbot – pop-up matchbox robot / ADA story by Josette Reeves / Win Tobbie robot from Bright Minds
December 2021 – Christmas
Elf-esteem – history of elves Prose Edda Ljosalfar Dokkalfar Huldufolk Volundr Wayland the Smith Beowulf Hans Christian Andersen Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm A Visit from St Nicholas ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas Clement Clarke-Moore David Lewis Liverpool / Midwinter magic – festivals and traditions from around the world Dongzhi China Toji Japan Shab-e Yalda Iran Junkanoo The Bahamas Inti Raymi Peru / Io Saturnalia! Roman god Saturn Lord of Misrule fun pranks and jollity for midwinter / 3…2…1… Dunk! – the science of biscuit dunking Len Fisher Ig Nobel Prize capillary action cohesion meniscus adhesion / Big silly Christmas shenanigans – four pages of brainfeeder puzzles and things to do / Calculata’s riotously round wrapping challenge – games and challenges with wrapping paper / Attack of the Christmas Earworms – INMI involuntary musical imagery PMTs perpetual music tracks forensic musicology / Make mini szopka advent calendar / Remarkable reindeer – tapetum lucidum eyeshine antlers clicking joints / Niko and the Dragon story by Jenny McLachlan / Win signed sets of ‘Land of Roar’ trilogy by Jenny McLachlan / Win tickets to David Walliams’ Gangsta Granny live on stage
November 2021 – The Moon
What did the Moon ever do for us? – movement of Moon tides gravitational influences lunar-day biological clock / Cities in space – interview with materials engineer Bee Rich and We The Curious, Bristol Science Centre / Shooting for the Moon – heroic mono myth Joseph Campbell The Hero’s Journey / Stomp rocket – make your own lunar launcher plastic bottle rocket / Space schedules – everyday life on the ISS / Mysterious Moon myths – gods and goddesses of the Moon / Tale of a sneaky astronaut – golf on Moon magnet science make gravity-defying astronaut / Make Phases of the Moon flipbook – persistence of vision / Cheese Quiz – which is your protective cheese guardian? fun quiz / Will Gull the Weregull story by Josette Reeves / Win Pop-up Moon, Pop-up Earth books from Thames & Hudson
October 2021 – Autumn Adventure
How to hibernate – hedgehogs nutrition omnivore hibernaculum reptile brumation / Watch out! Shapeshifters about – egg white protein molecules pH indicators turmeric curcumin retina rod and cone cells colour blindness / A royal visit – monarch butterfly migration diapause / Cauliflowers fluffy, cabbages green – giant veg Foodini pumpkin recipe / Forest figures – maths trail tree height tree age area of a leaf symmetry number of lifeforms Fibonacci sequence / Ghost hunting – paranormal pareidolia confirmation bias power of suggestion pseudoscience / Branching out – nanotechnology in trees atoms nanometres / Make a splash – working with the weather to make outdoor art / Diner disaster – competition to WIN Masters of Mayhem book from AQUILA / Operation Stegosaurus story Part 2 by Danielle Jawando
September 2021 – Dinosaurs
Dinosaurs timeline / Early bird dinos – evolution of dino-birds Thomas Huxley Archaeopteryx and Compsognathus / Solid as a rock! – fossilised faeces Make a dino dump doorstop coprolites trace fossils bezoar stones palaeoscatologists / Crystal Palace Park – Great Exhibition 1851 Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins / Which dinosaur are you? fun quiz / It’s chaos around here! – chaos theory unpredictability linear systems complex systems Edward Lorenz butterfly effect cyanobacteria photosynthesis adaptation Make chaos pendulum / Chickenosaurus Conundrum – should we turn chickens into dinosaurs? theropods editing DNA palaeontologist Jack Horner / Make a dinosaur diorama – book nooks / Dino-ROARS? – how did dinosaurs sound? larynx syrinx Lambeosaurus skull / Operation Stegosaurus story Part 1 by Danielle Jawando / Win book bundle – The Dinosaur Awards, Atlas of Dinosaur Adventures, Dictionary of Dinosaurs, Illumisaurus
July/August 2021 – London
London timeline 1500 BCE to 2021 / Sewer science – Great Stink of 1858 cholera Joseph Bazalgette – make a sewer with cardboard tube and foil / 31 Ways to live like a Londoner – fun suggestions for living a London lifestyle / Synchronise watches – What is GMT? Greenwich Meridian Prime Meridian latitude longitude co-ordinates International Date Line / Hidden London – Temple of Mithras Mithraeum underground rivers Fleet Tyburn Neckinger Joseph Grimaldi Highgate Cemetery Brick Lane Philpot Lane Rick Buckley noses / Peregrine falcons – parakeets invasive species / The Knowledge – London taxi drivers’ memory test of routes Blue Book / Make recycled London skyline – Mary Blair / Map of Me – a day in the life of me in the style of London Underground map / Let’s Debate – city life vs village life – opportunities communities digital working pollution green space / London life and crime in Sherlock’s time – Baker Street Sir Arthur Conan Doyle paupers rookery slums skinners snoozers Forty Elephants gang forensics Scotland Yard cryptography / The Queen of Selfies story by Josette Reeves / Building Bridges – beams piers girders trusses arches spans cantilevers cross-sections / Eat the city – foods from around the world / Lost Treasure of Cheapside – Cheapside hoard Goldsmith’s Row George Fabian Lawrence Hazel Forsyth Gerrard Pulman / Electric Avenue – Brixton Bon Marche department store Windrush Generation Eddy Grant / Magnificent menagerie – Tower of London Royal Menagerie Alfred Copps RSPCA London Zoo an unkindness of ravens / How to Win story by Nafisa Muhtadi / Win Signed copy of So You Want To Be A Knight?
June 2021 – Creative Coding
The marvellous magical mystery machine – how do computers actually work? – input-process-output data memory Network Interface Card accelerometer Central Processing Unit (CPU) transistors / Bit by bit – Gottfried Leibniz invention of binary system – polymath base 2 number system / Escape the mystery maze – Scratch coding block-based visual programming language / The Story of Bletchley Park – Government Code & Cypher School GC&CS Station X Alan Turing Enigma Machines 60 septillion combinations Marian Rejewski Gordon Welchman Bombe Colossus / Power Up! – How video games get made – designers artists programmers writing audio production / Say what you see – design your own coded bunting / Strangest things – BBC Micro Computer Literacy Project Sinclair Research Acorn Computers Raspberry Pi BBC micro:bit emulators / Coding the future – inspirational makes by the coolest kids Raspberry Pi Foundation Coolest Projects tech fair / Jimmy Bigbucks must die! – arcade mystery / Pigeon Post story by Helen Dennis / Win Helen Dennis ‘Secret Breakers’ box set / Win Taskmaster board game
May 2021 – Undersea Explorer
Under the sea – climate science Gulf Stream phytoplankton carbon sinks spring tides / Sink or swim? – Make a diving jellyfish buoyancy Archimedes principle cartesian diver density / Gyotaku – printing with fish / Baby sharks – Zebra sharks Stegostoma fasciatum apex predators oviparous Great Egg Case Hunt / Welcome to the midnight zone – creatures of the deep Blood belly comb jelly Barreleye fish Vampire squid Oxygen Minimum Zone Yeti crab Dumbo octopus / Man fish – the life and times of Jacques-Yves Cousteau – aqualung Conshelf Project underwater houses / Point Nemo spaceship graveyard – Hrvoje Lukatela oceanic point of inaccessibility problems of debris in sea / What sea slug are you – fun quiz / Here be sea monsters – maps and monsters cartographers Charybdis sirens ichthyocentaurs bestiaries mappa mundi portolan charts kraken Seabed 2030 project maps of ocean floor / The Prisoner story by Amy Sparkes / Win sea-themed hampers – whale-print beach towel, snorkel set, sea monkey kit, An Atlas of Ocean Adventures book by Emily Hawkins
April 2021 – Ancient Egypt
Akhenaten and the Sun God – Amenhotep IV Amun Aten Akhetaten / Magnificent mummies – embalming bitumen mummy brown pigment unwrapping parties Thomas Pettigrew Samuel Pepys Edward Burne-Jones / How to mummify a carrot – bog bodies osmosis equilibrium Alan Billis Tuten-Alan – create your own Carrotpatra / Make Bobbleheaded papier mache Sphinx / Impossible Journey – Searching for source of Nile Blue Nile White Nile / Really wild Nile – crocodiles hippos cobras scorpions and associated gods / Secrets of Sudan – Kingdoms of Kush Nubia Kerma deffufas Hyksos Napata Meroe / Spring into action – Sham El-Nessim Egypt’s oldest festival Season of the Harvest Low Water Smw Shemu feseekh dried grey mullet / KV10 Mystery of Two Queens – Valley of the Kings Amenmesses Messuy Takhat Baketwerel / Pyramid scheme – Great Pyramid at Giza – construct your own pyramid with straws Leonhard Euler / Egypt then and now – life in ancient Egypt food communication festivals games / Stone the rose – Egyptian inscriptions Rosetta Stone hieroglyphics / Escape the Luxor Barnet’s BnB of Doom B&B – puzzle / Gift of the Gab story by Freya Hardy / Win book bundle Egypt Magnified, Ancient World Magnified, The Ancient World in 100 Words, Our Wonderful World, Inside Out Egyptian Mummy
March 2021 – Brilliant Bugs
Why we love bugs – miraculous ecosystems pollinators decomposers predators / A different kind of bug – listening devices The Thing copy of USA Great Seal – build your own listening device acoustic mirror / Make ant farm / Catch me if you can – camouflage entomologists colour matching disruptive colouration self decoration active camouflage mimesis / A bug in the machine – Grace Hopper – computer bugs compiler Millennium Bug 19 January 2038 / Fantastical Frankenbugs – make a bug-friendly monster with paper / Super soil – nematodes mites Southern California mite Paratarsotomus macropalpis springtails / Design a brilliant bug catcher – pitfall trap pooter transect / Insect bites – edible insects protein entomophagy catatos cochineal carmine casu marzu / The Good Luck Thief story part 2 by Maisie Chan / Win bug-inspired gift hamper – ‘Living Twig’ Indian stick insect kit, Big Book of Bugs by Yuval Zimmer, Wildlife Trusts’ Concise Insect Guide, two packs of edible insects or vegan/vegetarian alternative
February 2021 – Funfair Maths
Scream if you wanna go faster! – Formula Rossa The Smiler Zumanjaro: Drop of Doom Leap the Dips The Scenic Railway Tower of Terror G-force / Ride on time – History of travelling fairs Michaelmas Nottingham Goose Fair showpeople menageries Batty’s Menagerie drunken elephant cinematographe Randall Williams Vanessa Toulmin William ‘Buffalo Bill’ Cody William Shufflebottom ‘Texas Bill’ / Let’s go for a spin! – centripetal force centrifugal force external force make gravitron art / Roll up, roll up! – Beating the odds – fun fair hacks probability house edge trial and improvement / Make a chair-o-planes carousel / Engineer this – interview with rollercoaster designer Michelle Hicks maths in engineering civil engineer structural engineer / Rollercoaster of emotions – science of excitement eustress effect on asthma fight or flight response adrenalin endorphins motion sickness / A-neigh-zing! Clever Hans maths marvel – counting horse Wilhelm von Osten Hans Commission Oskar Pfungst object permanence / Escape from Nesbitt’s Ghost Train maths puzzle / The Good Luck Thief story part 1 by Maisie Chan / Win Uma and the Answer to Absolutely Everything book by Sam Copeland
January 2021 – Ice Age
Frozen – introduction to Ice Age Pleistocene megabeasts Beringia land bridge Glacial Period extinctions / Icy investigation – melt experiments density of water / Make your own cosy slippers from felt / How to hunt a mammoth – Ice Age survival guide – making tools gathering food eating meat hunting / Iditarod Junior Dog Sled Race honouring 1925 diphtheria Serum Run mushers moose alley Leonhard Seppala Togo hero / Mega animals in the Ice Age – giant ground sloth glyptodon giant teratorn Menorcan giant lagomorph woolly rhinoceros / Cold weather comfort food – why we want carbs vitamins – Boom bars healthy Snickers bar recipe by Foodini Club / Taking the plunge – Wim Hof Dutch extreme athlete endorphins immune system wood frog woolly bear caterpillar dormancy cold shock response / Ice cream you scream – timeline history of ice cream 500 BCE to today / Missing – Presumed Squashed story by Josette Reeves / Win Foodini Postal Club pack
December 2020 – Night at the Movies
Lightbulb moment – Lumiere brothers history of cinema Thomas Edison kinetoscope Cinematographe colour film autochrome / Get a grip – what are the jobs on a filmset? Dolly grip gaffer best boy and many more / Designing Disneyland hub and spoke design Weenies underground tunnel complex imagineering / Foley factor – sound effects talkies Wilhelm Scream – make and record your own radio story / Make storyboard – shotlist floorplan plan and make storyboard / Stop motion – Ray Harryhausen armatures / Beginner’s guide to Bollywood – Chitra Soundar’s recommendations of Bollywood movies for young people / Hollywood stars with hidden talents – Hedy Lamarr Marlene Dietrich Greta Garbo Josephine Baker / Watching time travel – Proxima Centauri Polis in Sagittarius Grandfather paradox Bootstrap paradox wormholes descriptions and examples in films / Popcorn explosion – history of popcorn ceremonial snacks prairie gold Great Depression why does popcorn pop? germ endosperm pericarp / Phil Maker and Emmy Award’s Race to the Red Carpet board game / One Person’s Trash story by Amy Sparkes / Win portable pocket projector
November 2020 – Science of Fire
Zombie fires – forest fires methane deposits peat boreal forest pyrophytic permafrost moss smokejumpers / Make wing-flapping Phoenix / Salamanders fact and fiction asbestos skin disease Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans Bsal olms Proteus anguinus / Extinguish this – fire triangle make fire extinguisher make fire blanket fire retardant fabrics / Defying gravity with fire – candle experiment water level rises in upturned jam jar Law of Conservation of Mass combustion / How hot is hot? Temperatures – Big Bang centre of Sun centre of Earth eruption temperature of Kilauea cooked chicken Death Valley human body space Absolute zero superconductivity superfluidity Bose-Einstein condensate thermoscopes Fahrenheit Celsius Kelvin / Fire hawks – Australian indigenous peoples’ tales of birds using fire ethnobiologists firebreaks / Great balls of fire – how fire behaves in zero gravity – NASA International Space Station Flame Extinguishment Experiment (FLEX) spherical flames Zero Gravity Research Facility Microgravity Science Glovebox Spacecraft Fire Safety Experiments (Saffire) project / Some like it hotter – chilli peppers capsaicinoids sensory neurons polymodal nociceptors fight or flight response natural selection Scoville Scale Make chilli ‘jam’ / The Very Serious Incident story Part 2 by Ruth Clarke-Irons / Win Chilli hampers x 3 (chilli growing kit with seeds for four different varieties, a bottle of chilli ketchup, a bottle of sweet chilli sauce and a bar of Madagascan chilli chocolate)
October 2020 – What is Art?
Over the rainbow – everyone’s an artist – use of rainbows as symbols / Drawn in – brain hemispheres – why drawing is good for you / Introducing SciArt – scientific illustration medical artists / 31 days of arty fun / Vindaloo vandal – solve mystery of who ruined Henry Trout’s painting / Arty animals – bowerbirds pufferfish weaver birds / Scratch – History of graffiti art Banksy Sulawesi palaeolithic graffiti petroglyphs Greek Roman Maya Hagia Sophia Istanbul Jean-Michel Basquiat Greenwich Mural Workshop graffiti of the future / Islamic art tutorial Samira Mian / Art a la carte – self-taught artists of Japan Kazuo Itoga Takanori Herai Takahiro Shimoda Itsuo Kobayashi primary data qualitative data quantitative or mathematical data – make pop-up plate artwork / The Very Serious Incident story Part 1 by Ruth Clarke-Irons / Win art pens and illustrated portrait by Robbie Cathro (watercolour brush pens, square pastel crayons)
September 2020 – Industrial Revolution
Smoke gets in your eyes – a whistle-stop tour of the industrial revolution – timeline / On yer bike! – inventions Mt Tambora Indonesia running machine pedespeed steam horse Steam Man Isambard Kingdom Brunel bridges steamships / In a spin – spinning jenny carding rovings treadle shuttle weft warp flying shuttle – try hand-spinning – cotton colonisation exploitation / Meet the Mudlarks – search for ancient artefacts anaerobic Thames mud / Gregor MacGregor Prince of Poyais – confidence trickster 1820s / Industrial evolution – Peppered moths Darwin Wallace Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection Darwin’s moth morph DNA mutations transposon jumping genes / Design, paint, print, repeat – make William Morris-inspired wrapping paper / Let’s debate – Is progress always good? / What’s your job? Fun quiz / 2020 The Year the World Stood Still – How to handle the news when it gets scary / Thames Tunnel – Marc Isambard Brunel – Richard Trevithick tunnelling shield oldest part of London Underground / The Sultan’s Scoff story by Chitra Soundar / Win CIRO STEMP solar-powered robot kit
July/August 2020 – Amazon!
The Amazon River – ecosystem Amazon basin Andes – threats from ranchers roads farmers miners – transpiration / The Yanomami – Guardians of the forest indigenous peoples way of life threats to survival / In the pink – Pink River Dolphins cervical vertebrae melon echolocation biosonar ‘botos’ ‘Encantados’ ‘Encante’ / Make a macaw mask / What’s in your rainforest – titan beetle Hercules beetle bullet ant amber phantom butterflies Goliath birdeater peanut bug turtle-tear-drinking butterflies leafmimic katydid / Bank it! – Bio-banks habitat destruction genebank liquid buffer liquid nitrogen seeds spores seed banks field bank Millennium Seed Bank Royal Botanic Gardens Kew Extract DNA from soft fruit polyploidy diploid triploid hexaploid octoploid / What’s that stink? Hoatzin birds – folivorous crop metabolisation / How do you count the plants in a rainforest? – Herbarium sheet Royal Botanic Gardens Kew quarantine freezers botanical illustrators Pierre-Joseph Redoute Margaret Mee / Ant maths – Marco Dorigo ant communication trail pheromones logistics / Fawcett and the Lost City of Z – Percy Fawcett Hiram Bingham Machu Picchu / Battle for the Amazon story by reader James Lavery, aged 11 / Please look after this bear – Paddington in Peru spectacled bear Andean cloud forest Paddington Tour in South America / Let’s debate – Uncontacted tribes – should they be left alone, or contacted? / Make woven wall art with card strips / Bouncebackability – science of rubber synthetic latex rubber tapping polymers monomers Charles Goodyear vulcanisation elasticity petroleum – make a rubber band using dandelions / Shanay-Timpishka – Boiling River Project of the Amazon Andrés Ruzo Yacumama geothermal potential hydro-thermal systems geothermal gradient extremophiles / Foodini – fabulous food parcels Amazonian street food Peruvian Juanes recipe / How to Make a Raven Laugh story by Amy Sparkes / Win Amazon-inspired hamper: rainforest puzzle, 3 books – Amazon Adventure (Lonely Planet Kids), The Lost Book of Adventure (Unknown Adventurer), Journey to the River Sea (Eva Ibbotson) – Bug Safari kit
June 2020 – Japan
High five! Islands of Japan – Hokkaido Honshu Shikoku Kyushu Okinawa archipelago fault lines tectonic plates Shibuya Scramble Crossing Mount Fuji Tokyo Skytree Tokaido Way Shinkansen bullet train 88 Temple Pilgrimage / Use your Noodle! – ramen instant noodles diffusion rehydrate kansui alkaline salt gluten – diffusion experiment using hot and cold water / Tokyo Days – a week in Edward’s life in Tokyo / Manga drawing tutorial – meet illustrator Takayo Akiyama draw heads faces expressions bodies simple story structure / Gods of the Rising Sun – Shinto and Buddhist gods / Bullet trains – Shinkansen track curve radius tunnel boom shock wave aerodynamics pantograph maglev magnetic levitation / History (and future) of vending machines – robotic shops Hero of Alexandria Percival Everitt Horn & Hardart automat food dispenser / Origami fox Paku-paku Kitsune flapping-mouth fox / Samurai – the Way of the Warrior – warrior class saburau bushi feudal lords katana blade wakizashi dagger bushido code of conduct ninja Genpei War Shogun Minamoto no Yoritomo Tokugawa clan / The Moustache Olympics story by Noah Weisz / Win Japanese hampers – Black Jack by Osamu Tezuka, Studio Ghibli mousemat and film poster, bamboo sushi-making kit, Japanese candies, signed copy So You Want to be a Ninja? by Takayo Akiyama
May 2020 – Discover Dogs
Ulti-mutt Timeline of dogs – 36,000 years ago to 400s CE / Fantastic fleas – muscles vs weight area volume Pulgas Vestidas / Paddy the Wanderer – Dash Airedale terrier Wellington NZ Elsie Marie Glasgow / Hot diggity! – History of Hot dogs Coney Island New York Charles Feltman Nathan Handwerker hot dog diplomacy Coney dog Detroit / Snoot – why dogs have wet noses biology of dog’s nose nares rhinarium philtrum smells in stereo olfactory region turbinates olfactory bulb vomeronasal organ pheromones anosmia / Canine quiz – Which endangered dog are you? / In The Shadow of Black Shuck – legend of East Anglia Abraham Fleming folklore smuggling barguest scucca / Top Dogs and Pedigree Chums – selective breeding neoteny Pekingese working dogs Kennel Club dog shows / Make dog card / Dingo and the Well story by Jenny McLachlan / Win signed illustrated (Ben Mantle) copy of The Land of Roar by Jenny
April 2020 – Earth
Greenhouse graft – Goldilocks zone circumstellar habitable zone CHZ thermal imaging camera greenhouse gases global warming climate change Random Acts Of Green / Reforesting the world – carbon sinks phytoplankton trillion tree campaigns monoculture Gola rainforest / Saving orangutans of Borneo – habitat destruction Heart of Borneo Strategic Plan of Action / Aquila’s Golden-Global-Animal-Academy-Awards – masked bowerbird mimic octopus blanket octopus Parson’s chameleon iridophore cells nanocrystals great white shark rosy maple moth giant panda / Make waxed paper food wrap / All mapped out – globes map projections latitude longitude loxodromes rhumb lines Pedro Nunes Gerardus Mercator projection Winkel Tripel Dymaxion Azimuthal south-up map / Epochs, oceans and plastic dragons – recycling Lego Lost at Sea Geologic Time Scale eons eras periods epochs ages anthropocene punk archaeology / Reasons to be cheerful – positive projects and eco-friendly initiatives / Gaia mother of Mother Earth mythology – Ge Hesiod chaos Uranus Kronos Chronos Earth-sky separation James Lovelock wuxing / Fish Out Of Water story by Avantika Taneja / Win book bundle – How to Help a Hedgehog and Protect a Polar Bear, Wild Lives, Earth Heroes, Flood World, Dust Road
March 2020 – Magic Maths
John Dee and Shakespeare’s Prospero – horoscopes Queen Mary Elizabeth I 007 oo7 Ian Fleming Edward Kelley / Numbers in Nature – number sense Fibonacci sequence Leonardo de Pisa Golden Ratio Golden Spiral logarithmic spiral nautilus cephalopod Platonic solids viruses / Pythagoras – steady patterns hertz ratios pitch lyre octaves perfect fifths harmony of the spheres / Mysterious Stonehenge – sarsen stones bluestones Neolithic hammerstones mortise and tenon Heel stone trilithon build a biscuit henge / Great Linguini’s Ice Cream Problem – choosing the best from 100 flavours magic number e / Chinese numerology – Lo Shu Grid Fu Xi Fu Hsi auspicious and inauspicious numbers homophones / Make Houdini theatre / Parabola science – 20 Fenchurch St Walkie Talkie satellite dishes feedhorn collector acoustic mirrors radar parabolic trajectory angle of incidence equal to angle of reflection solar cooker toasting marshmallows / Anxiety – bears future worries delayed return YoungMinds charity strategies to combat stress / And the Magic Number Is… story by Amy Sparkes / Win 4 maths books
February 2020 – Happiness
29 days of joy – celebrate leap year with joyful nonsense activities / Measuring the immeasurable – gross national happiness GDP World Happiness Report cultural norms / Get outside – forest bathing shinrin-yoku sonic relief reverberation echoes Bosco Verticale Vertical Forest Milan Wildlife Trusts volunteering / Creature comfort – animal therapy oxytocin improve wellbeing AAT hippotherapy horses PTSD post-traumatic stress disorder / Make it up! – wonderful world of wordplay Lewis Carroll Ivor Cutler Laura Dockrill / History of humour – Philogelos joke book oldest known joke Sumerian flatulence doctor knock knock Shakespeare satire / Can everyone have a happy childhood? – United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child social reform Eglantyne Jebb Dorothy Buxton / Wild exploring – creating fantastical maps different ways of seeing / Make – salt dough medal / Vision story by Innocent Chizaram Ilo / Win Family Tickets to Billionaire Boy Live On Stage
January 2020 – Evolution
Best of frenemies? – Charles Darwin Alfred Russel Wallace transmutation of species natural selection / Who eats with a bill like this? – evolution of beaks – try picking up biscuits or lentils with spoon and tongs / Evolving you, evolving me – dealing with personal changes / 60% banana – human genome genetic base pairs neanderthals / Live forever – ‘immortal’ jellyfish sessile polyp cloning chromosomes telomeres telomerase hydra stem cells FOXO genes regenerative medicine / After man – Dougal Dixon zoology of the future speculative evolution mimicry genetic engineering biotechnology / The big and small of evolution – genes DNA nucleotides adenine thymine guanine cytosine proteins mutations substitutions insertions deletions natural selection / Saving Darwin’s Birds – Galapagos Islands islets archipelago endemic animals invasive species Galapagos Conservation Trust Restoring Floreana / Make a trace fossil – ichnofossil coprolites / The Revenge of the Woodlice story by Josette Reeves / Win Genetics and DNA experiment kit
December 2019 – Fantastic Tales
Once upon a time – where do stories come from? How to start a story / Make dragon wings / Choose your own adventure story – protagonist writing in first person or second person / Which mythical creature are you? fun quiz / Make Snowy Mountains cookies – Foodini / Ursula Le Guin anthropology / Tolkien talk – hobbit neologism Middle-earth linguist portmanteau words Silmarillion Lord of the Rings Dwarvish Khuzdul etymology / Stories and science from Aotearoa – taxonomy traditional Maori healing Kawakawa agar solution / Shrinking science – Alice in Wonderland gravity astronauts microgravity age-related height loss – shrinking plastic experiment with crisp packet – polymers / Twilight barking – maths of growth and decay 101 Dalmatians exponention bacterial growth carbon dating carbon-14 half-life uranium-238 / Make a dark-sensing amulet / Let’s debate – Knowledge and imagination – which is more important? / The Silver Whistle story by Jenny McLachlan / Win Foodini Club Postal Kit / Win Harry Potter Kano Coding Kit
November 2019 – Storm!
Storm gods – thunder and lightning gods of various cultures and religions / Stormy waters – Julius von Mayer – the Lavoisiers caloric Dutch East Indies colour of blood metabolic activity / Dynamic data in disasters – gps cell phone triangulation personal data in emergencies / Why storms have names – weather warnings shipping forecast Alice Arnold broadcaster / Painting light – paint like JMW Turner / Make a bottle tornado – what is a tornado? twisters condensation funnel Enhanced Fujita Scale wind shear supercell storm chasers / Lewis Fry Richardson – numerical weather forecast modelling predicting war / Let’s debate school strikes – Greta Thunberg – Earth Day / Climate change – shifting storms atmospheric gases carbon cycle tropical storms trade winds El Nino La Nina / The Haunting of Jonathan Wilde’s Trousers story by Josette Reeves / Win The Book of Big Science Ideas by Freya Hardy
October 2019 – Fakes and Forgeries
Science of hoaxes – Venus With a Veil Lucas Cranach the Elder Giuliano Ruffini fake news gut feelings how to fact check can you believe your eyes? saccades rapid eye movements / Polly’s Forgery Detective game for 3-6 players / Re-mix the news – hacking web pages browser bookmarks Mozilla X-Ray Goggles html tags / Not on your Nelly – animals that had to be seen to be believed – explorers’ tales of ‘new’ creatures / Charles Fraser-Smith gadgets inventor Special Operations Executive MI6 MI9 prototype Q for James Bond / Watermarks – paper money polymer dandy-roll make watermarks / Shedevil Mystery – work out who stole the emerald using clues and statements / Martin Guerre – identity theft mistaken identity doppelganger / The Watcher story part 2 by Amy Sparkes / Smell science – Liam Findlay king of whiffs producing smells for theme parks zoos etc smell receptors – Win custom-made fragrance & propagation device from AromaPrime
September 2019 – Microcosmos
Ancient nanotechnology – nanomaterials nanoparticles nanowires nanotubes electron microscope Lycurgus cup colloids Damascus steel / Tardigrades – Johann August Ephraim Goez suspended animation trehalose / Make sock tardigrade waterbear / Foldscope – Frugal science revolution bioengineering / Antonie van Leeuwenhoek – father of microbiology plaque microorganisms lice sweat / Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House – Sir Edwin Lutyens Palladian architecture / Microscope emergency! – make a ‘microscope’ with mobile phone or tablet using water droplet – surface tension hydrogen bonds cohesion / Bed bugs and beyond – belly buttons demodex mites bees worms tapeworms bacteria archaea protozoa / Zeno’s Paradox – Achilles versus tortoise / The Watcher story Part 1 by Amy Sparkes / Win Deluxe Foldscopes / Win ‘So You Want To Be A Viking’/’Roman Soldier’ books set
July/August 2019 – Ancient Greece
Timeline 7000 BCE-146 BCE / Olympians – Greek gods poster / All Greek to me – alphabet word roots drama / Eureka! Archimedes – density displacement volume mass make a density lava lamp / Write a Greek tragedy – how to write your own / Putting on a show – set designs themes / Moon over Olympus – Selene Eos Helios Philolaus Antichthon Central Fire Plutarch celestial portal Lucian of Samosata / Cat’s cradle – knot theory topology unknot trivial knot string figures Opening A / Ask Aunty Agatha – spoof agony aunt / The Maze story by Danielle Jawando / Antikythera mechanism – automata artefacts Panhellenic Olympic Isthmian Nemean Pythian games Kitab al-Hiyal Book of Ingenious Devices / Orpheus – myths Muse Apollo Eurydice Underworld / Aristotle’s classifications – King Philip of Macedon Lyceum logic scala naturae (ladder of nature) Linnaeus binomial / Hypatia – Theon Apollonius Diophantus astrolabe hydroscope riots in Alexandria 5 rules of geometry Pythagorean triples conic sections / Discover ancient Athens – Kerameikos Eridanos Dipylon Gate amphorae kraters Panathenaea Parthenon Athene Panathenaic Way Agora ionic columns stoae Hephaestus Bouleuterion Acropolis Mount Aigaleo Dionysus Euripides Piraeus / 10 things to do in Athens before you’re 12 / The Mahout of Thill story by Chitra Soundar / Birth of philosophy – Thales Socrates wisdom Delphic Oracle Apollo / Tourism turtles loggerheads beach pollution conservation / Win ‘Who Let The Gods Out?’ book sets
June 2019 – Cake
Let them eat cake! – galette des rois tres leches yokan spekkoek mooncakes pavlova magwinya angel food cake / Sugar-coated – history of sugar – sugarcane Madeira Andrea S. Marggraff Napoleon / Cracking cake toppers – birthday bunting origami flower mini cake toppers paper tassel / Rise up! – leavening alkali acid self-raising flour bicarbonate of soda thermal decomposition proteins baker’s brewer’s yeast fungus fermentation spores – make honeycomb puff candy hokey pokey cinder toffee sea foam / Sugar gliders – marsupials diet patagium membrane joeys impact on Tasmanian swift parrot / Sweet talk – Foodini feature – free sugars fructose galactose glucose dextrose refined sugar fibre Upside down peach cake recipe / Politics of plenty – panem et circenses Field of the Cloth of Gold 1520 bread and roses food poverty food waste food banks / Caaake! Tower of Hanoi – 19th-century French game recursive puzzle closed form equation / I want it all right now! – pythons snakes stretchy ligaments evolution bipedal chewing salivary response Epicurus ethical hedonists / Mia’s Great British Cake Off story by Avantika Taneja / Win a Baker’s Dozen – apron Fantastic Eats cookbook edible chemistry kit baking ingredients in personalised enamel bowl
May 2019 – Leonardo da Vinci
Sign of the times – hidden meanings symbols Mona Lisa Last Supper conspiracy theories / Florence – cradle of Renaissance notary Andrea del Verrocchio Medici guilds doublet and hose – Timeline Leonardo’s life / How to observe like Leo – to-do lists / Mona Lisa – Lisa Gherardini Francesco del Giocondo La Gioconda La Joconde / Fluid in motion – turbulence fluid dynamics toroidal vortex / Anatomy and art – ancient anatomists Leonardo’s notebooks / Body Worlds Museum – Dr Angelina Whalley Dr Gunther von Hagens plastination / Fascinating fractals – ornamentation religious symbolism algebra geometry biology snowflakes draw the Flower of Life / Make pizza paint palette – pigment melanin lapis lazuli / The Sun Ship story by Rachel Rowlands / Win Natural Earth Paint kit
April 2019 – Science of Music
The first song – ancient music – language hyoid larynx effects of music on emotions / Listen to your heart – effects of sound on body low frequency infrasound interoception count heartbeats and breathing – animals’ early warning of earthquakes tsunamis / Personalise your denim jacket / Mechanics of birdsong – Jurassic Anthropocene larynx trachea pitch syrinx two airways dawn chorus sonograms embryonic learning / Make a glass orchestra – glass harp vibration friction resistance pressure lubricant / Magical brilliant music – musicians born or made? neuromusicology dyslexia / AquilNME – spoof NME pages / Haul away! – sea shanties shantyman a cappella forebitters London Sea Shanty Collective / Riot at The Rite of Spring – Igor Stravinsky Theatre des Champs-Elysees Ballets Russes Vaslav Nijinsky Belgian Revolution dopamine dissonance / Salem and the Witch story part 2 by Angela Holroyd / Win Stylophone Gen X-1
March 2019 – Curious Cats
Super-duper mouse shooter expels cardboard mice for cat to chase / Cat’s eye science Percy Shaw inventor reflectors ray diagram eyeshine diurnal tapetum lucidum – make cat’s eye model optic nerve blind spot / Backward-walking cats Minamata Bay – hazardous waste mercury poisoning Chisso Corporation mad-hatter’s disease milliners – is fish safe to eat? / Make a cat sculpture – Alexander Girard-inspired papier-mâché cat / The cute factor – dopamine response limbic reward system Ventral Tegmental Area Mesolimbic pathway Nucleus accumbens Orbito-frontal cortex / Just think – Let’s debate – keeping pets pet trade / Magical cats Bastet Libertas Freyja familiars – weather prediction cats on ships – panthers – Japanese Maneki Neko beckoning cat / Cats quiz – which of these endangered cats best matches your personality? – Scottish wild cat Amur leopard South China tiger Iriomote cat / Dr. Seuss Theodor Seuss Geisel Ted prohibition Cat In The Hat Lorax / Salem Witch story Part 1 by Angela Holroyd / Win book bundle – Wild Animals of the North, Wild Animals of the South, Crazy About Cats, The Amazing Animal Atlas
February 2019 – Real World Maths
Topology – mug and donut topologically equivalent – play Mugnuts game / Christopher Wren – Great Fire of London city planning Milton Keynes / Pillow forts denbuilding architecture – statics forces gravity tension / 6 disastrous Miscalculations – NASA’s Genesis Probe Christopher Columbus Tacoma Narrows Bridge aeroelastic flutter Challenger shuttle Vasa warship French trains too wide for platforms / Mathematics in choreographer’s toolbox – choreography translation rotation reflection symmetry Elizabeth Streb / Perspective – paint like L. S. Lowry / Snowflake symmetry – reflections rotations hexagonal symmetry hydrogen bonds designer snowflakes / Skate maths – calculus motion velocity angles circles centre of gravity momentum Tom Schaar – skateboards ollie frontside 180 / Perfectionism – self-esteem / The Wishing Tree of the Blue Dragon Temple ancient Korean story retold by B. C. Bond / Win City of Zombies board game
January 2019 – Supervolcano
Chart of volcanoes c.1600 BCE to 1980 CE / Volcanoes and tectonics – Earth’s origins rock fossil evidence 4.54 billion years Cambrian explosion / Continental drifting – Pangaea evolution foxes Toba super eruption – humans perhaps depleted to 3,000-10,000 effect on gene pool / Make papier-mache volcanic rock / Yellowstone Park – geothermal features magma chamber fissures travertine terraces thermophiles fumaroles mud pots geysers / Yellowstone wildlife – grizzly bears bison boreal chorus frogs frogsicles cougars wolves bears silver-haired bats weasels / Zhang Heng – Houfeng Didong Yi – Han dynasty polymath hydraulics cartography seismoscope / Anger management – how anger works in the body adrenaline cortisol limbic system trigger response frontal lobe – strategies to handle anger / In hot water – hydrothermal vents Black smokers White smokers phytoplankton photosynthesis marine snow chemosynthesis – plate tectonics strike-slip boundaries – Hydrothermal vent experiment using cold and hot water and food colouring / Just think – End of the world – how the world might end / Operation Hyphaestus story by Scott Goldie / Win The Little Inventors Handbook
December 2018 – Charles Dickens
Timeline of Dickens’ life / Pepper’s Ghost – Henry Dircks John Henry Pepper ray diagram – make your own Pepper’s Ghost with box and cd case / Make Phenomenal phenakistoscope / Mesmerised by magnetism – insomnia Franz Mesmer Dickens aligning bed to face north Madame de la Rue animal magnetism magnetoreception / Could you survive a Victorian workhouse? – quiz / Victorian street food – costermongers jellied eels Yarmouth bloater penny lick / Foodini Club makes Plum Duffins – spiced Xmas muffins / Victorians and animal rescue – Clarissa Baldwin CBE Battersea Dogs and Cats Home Mary Tealby Emily Tennyson / Mystery of Edwin Drood – essence of crime means motive opportunity / What Lies In Shadow story by Amy Sparkes / Loneliness – bad for health interconnected world people more private / Win Dickens bundle – Charles Dickens Museum family tickets, postcards, books A Christmas Carol, Illustrated Stories From Dickens / Christmas insert – Chittering On The Weald Village Newsletter – spoof Dickensian village magazine
November 2018 – Science of Light
Animal optics – eyes of owl goat tarsier ostrich wombat tiger mantis shrimp shark box jellyfish / Science of light – wave particle duality photon electromagnetic spectrum wavelengths Rømer lightyear parsecs CHIME Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment / Science of light – why is sky blue? why is sunset orange? atmosphere gases – Make a sunset in a bottle using milk and water / Make nightlight lantern / Moths – transverse orientation entomologists Lepidoptera proboscis antennae / Henrietta Swan Leavitt – luminosity Cepheid variables Leavitt’s Law / Expanding universe – Hubble Slipher redshift Doppler effect Hubble Constant Hubble’s Law / Finding your own light – faith belief philosophy Socrates / Just Think – Are there limits to imagination? – Big Bang rationalists empiricists David Hume Immanuel Kant / How The Night Came story Brazilian folktale retold by Benita Estevez / Win book bundles – Space Racers, A Cat’s Guide to the Night Sky, Midnight Monsters, Midnight Creatures
October 2018 – Detectives
Supersleuths – timeline of detective fiction 1794–2014 / Orient Express – travelling hotel / Undercover animals – disguises and mimicry in the animal world / The Mystery Club Are On The Case story by Robin Stevens / Step on it! – casts and prints – forensic footprints Prof Matthew Bennett geoarchaeology digital photogrammetry gait exothermic reaction / Deductive reasoning – axioms Venn diagrams paradox / How to think like a detective – observation micro expressions communication listening memory mind palace mind house thought train / Make a super sleuth’s brilliant book safe / Police dogs – Sir Robert Peel / Dr John Snow cholera detective – ether chloroform cholera dot distribution dot density map germ theory of disease Robert Koch epidemiology / Win Master Detective Tool Kit
September 2018 – Vikings
Evidence – weapons burials longboats placenames trading Hogback stones treasure stories – Viking timeline / Magnificent yeast – bread leavened unleavened – make bread kneading – what is yeast? / Yggdrasil Norse tree of life – Viking mythology Asgard Alfheim Vanaheim Svartalfheim Muspelheim Niflheim Jotunheim Midgard Helheim / Make dancing Viking mask / Seafaring longships runestone cowboys – clinker-built bearing dials sea compasses sunstones calcite crystal Iceland spar / Thor and Loki – legends comics / Just think about Heroic Virtues – courage strength loyalty or cruelty violence – ancient and modern ethics / Norse notes – Viking facts – nicknames runes skates helmets rap battles women’s freedom / Ask Freyja and Baldur – advice from Asgard and Vanaheim – agony aunt beauty tips / Eric Numbskull and the Ghost of York story by Julie Hadfield / Days of the week – origins of names / Win Histronaut books A Roman Adventure, An Egyptian Adventure, A Viking Adventure
July/August 2018 – Humankind
Happy birthday AQUILA – various facts and figures / First humans – timeline 6 million years ago to today / Timeline of humanity – Lucy Australopithecus afarensis Homo species / Cracking cave art – Cueva de las Manos handprints – Make stoneage art / Controlling fire – fire in nature cooking food / Neanderthal art – painting jewellery burial / Man’s best friend – canis lupus first domesticated / Rainbows story by Jenny Robson / Amazing body science – stability reflex actions eye dominance ‘holey hand’ / Foodini – the gut microbes microbiota probiotics prebiotics bacteria fibre – make sweet potato and black bean quesadillas / Win Foodini Club September Postal Kits / How you grow – genetic make-up embryo stages fallopian tube uterus wall placenta amniotic sac neural tube / How tall will I grow? Formula to find possible adult height / Body maths – base-10 base-20 base-5 base-8 cubits hands fathoms feet metres metric / Mother tongue – language FOXP2 gene social grooming music Arabic 11 words for love sign language Euskera Basque / Variolation – Edmund Dolling smallpox cowpox vaccination Lady Mary Wortley Montagu / What is autism? – 1 in 68 on spectrum – quotes from autistic children / Make articulated hand / Suffragettes – suffrage suffragists Millicent Fawcett Emmeline Pankhurst Men’s League for Women’s Suffrage / Story Room Number 9 by Freya Hardy / Win book bundles – Illumanatomy, Human Body, 50 Wacky Things Humans Do
June 2018 – Game Theory
Ancient games – Royal Game of Ur knucklebones Saturnalia Olympics / Music boxes – Antoine Favre organs bells Paul Lochmann Polyphon / Win Musical box / Make Pinball game / Man versus machine – Deep Blue Garry Kasparov – programs artificial intelligence chess Alan Turing game tree IBM Joel Benjamin Go AlphaGo / Prisoner’s dilemma – mathematical theory real world chaos / Timeline of computer gaming / Future of gaming – Pong virtual reality Pokemon Go mixed reality E-sports / Rock paper scissors – UK championship algorithms conditional response / Lepus story by Paula Andrews / Mind games – psychology adverts hypnosis mind control – is someone trying to control me?
May 2018 – Safari
Learn to navigate – map key scale contour lines bearings using a compass magnetic north / Savannah facts – acacia giraffe rhinoceros lion leopard zebra baobab cape buffalo elephant / Make mandrill mask / Just think – Do all species matter? Endangered species slugs scorpions viruses – intrinsic value versus usefulness / Carl Linnaeus – binomial classification Daniel Solander Joseph Banks Sigesbeckia orientalis / Elephant parade – landmines Marc Spits Mike Spits ivory poaching Friends of the Asian Elephant Hospital / Let’s debate safari parks – pros and cons / Backyard bug safari – bug hunt pooter myriapods crustaceans pupa elytra / Animal behaviourist – choice chamber ethologist Jane Goodall Wytham Woods Laboratory with Leaves Prof Ben Sheldon choice chamber woodlice woodlouse welfare / African Wild Dogs Lycaon pictus / The Hunt for the Silken Gillatang story by Scott Goldie / Win Safari photicular books
April 2018 – Pop Art
Contents page puzzle – name the people / Bang! Pop art explosion – Great Depression 1929 baby boom consumerism / Scary tails of New York – creatures in New York – coyotes leeches Leidy’s comb jelly black widow spiders sunfish big dipper fireflies brown bats rats cockroaches finback whales / Andy Warhol Time Capsules – Stone Age Russia Valley of the Kings Terracotta Army Sutton Hoo – make your own time capsule / Oxidation art – urine uric acid ‘copper’ coins tarnish verdigris azurite malachite brochantite – make your own oxidation art / Make screen prints / Repeat patterns – tessellation prototiles monohedral tilings Islamic Golden Age Sheesh Mahal Palace of Mirrors – make your own pattern / Collage activity / Which Pop Art icon are you? quiz / Just think about … How good is Pop Art? What is art for? / The Very Last Jar story part 2 by Alys Jackson / Win set of 5 titles from Thames & Hudson – A Journey Through Art; SPLAT! The Most Exciting Artists of All Time; My Big Art Show; Think and Make Like an Artist; Why Is Art Full of Naked People?
March 2018 – Grow Your Own
Dig for Victory – WW2 rationing Ministry of Agriculture cartoons Dr Carrot Potato Pete guerilla gardening / Make carrot ice cream / Baked Bean Botany – French beans peas peanuts botanist dissection testa hilum umbilical cord micropyle germination radicle cotyledons photosynthesis plumule / Make Balloonatic Birdfeeder / Grow your own veg from scraps – waste diary composting / Bravo for bees – pollen nectar honeycomb hexagon queens workers drones pollen basket swarm / The Good Life – 15-year-old’s life on smallholding / Plant Hunter Michael Way Kew Gardens Millennium Seed Bank Atacama Desert Yellow rattle Rhinanthus minor / Growing your mind by Kate Daniels – growth mindset Carol Dweck puzzles nature versus nurture Alfred Binet fixed mindset learn from mistakes Jackson Pollock / The Very Last Jar story Part 1 by Alys Jackson / Win Beepots – concrete bee nests
February 2018 – Money Maths
Tulip mania – economic bubble / Let’s play Pursey MacMoneypants – financial terms card game / Meet the kidpreneurs – how some children have made money / Just Think about … Could we do without money? / Coin drop challenge – gravity mass weight reaction force inertia velocity Newton’s Laws of Motion / Make a vendor’s tray / Who wants to be a millionaire? – How to make £1m from £1 / Prime numbers – cracking cryptography – public keys prime factorisation RSA algorithm modular arithmetic modulo 26 / Counterfeit conundrum – pile trussel head tail ingot screw press edge inscriptions Vauxhall Road Counterfeiters James Steele Royal Mint / Win Family Ticket to Royal Mint Experience / Money management by Kate Daniels / The Golden Bird of Tuvalu story by Hilary Orme
January 2018 – Rocket Science
Newton’s three laws of motion – Principia thrust F=ma force mass acceleration / Make bottle rockets – drag lift / Make splatter art / Bombardier beetles – hydroquinone hydrogen peroxide uncertain evolution / Flying High – ancient stories – Daedalus Icarus Lucian / Terrific trajectories – space race Katherine Johnson analytic geometry coordinates / Harold’s Comedy Showcase story by Azenath Adede / Space calling – atomic age design / Win Legendary Journeys: SPACE books
December 2017 – Polar Explorer
What will happen if ice melts? Antarctica Larsen C ice shelf calving climate change – experiment with melting ice / Race for the South Pole – Scott vs Amundsen / Make Polar bear slot sculpture / Icefish – blood colour haemoglobin protein iron haemocyanin copper skinks bile nitric oxide / Barbara Hillary – first recorded black woman to reach North and South Poles / Pytheas Pillars of Hercules Thule Agricola Pliny the Elder Ultima Thule / Alec’s Polar Bear story by Danielle Jawando / Courage – Nelson Mandela comfort zone being one’s true self / WIN Snow Day vouchers for a UK snow centre
November 2017 – The Electric Issue
What is electricity? electrons protons neutrons Rutherford-Bohr diagram balanced charge insulators – wiring plugs fuses / Lightning – cumulonimbus anvil clouds electric field leader of charged air – Win Electricity and Magnetism Kit – Make little lightning – static electricity polystyrene and foil dish / Make motorised thaumatrope / Shocking species – electric animals – electrocytes navigation communication defence attack sharks stingrays eels elephantnose fish Schnauzenorgan platypus / Edison, Tesla and war of currents – Joseph Swan direct current DC alternating current AC George Westinghouse Godalming Surrey Niagara Falls Buffalo / Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein – Luigi Galvani Giovanni Aldini Alessandro Volta Newgate Prison Targeted Muscle Reinnervation TMR control artificial limbs / The Game story part 2 by Amy Sparkes / Happy birthday Marie Curie – life and work Pierre Curie X-rays uranium radioactivity uraninite pitchblende polonium radium Nobel prizes – Little Curies mobile radiology units / Pen Friend Club / Win book DK 13½ Incredible Things You Need To Know About Everything!
October 2017 – Forest Adventure
Chromatography – pigment chlorophyll photosynthesis deciduous carotenoids xanthophylls tannins anthocyanins – experiment to show colour of leaves / The world-famous bicycle-eating tree of Brig O’Turk – and bicycle tree of Vashon Island, WA / Make shower of falling leaves mobile / Survive a night in the forest – basic equipment safety etiquette – wild camping diary by Alice and Noah / Abi Elphinstone magic of trees – through The Blue Door / Win Night Spinner book by Abi Elphinstone / Bringing beavers back to Britain – rewilding castoreum keystone species wetlands biofilms Bamff Estate Scotland / The Game story part 1 by Amy Sparkes / The Green Man – in folklore stage screen myth churches
September 2017 – The Elizabethans
Elizabeth I – Virgin queen Bess Gloriana Palace of Placentia Greenwich European Renaissance Protestant Reformation Martin Luther Armada / Explosions in the name of science – scientific journal papers peer review – experiment bag bomb bicarbonate of soda vinegar / Elizabethan streetwalk London 1599 / Make a portrait – Armada Portrait 1588 decoded – how to draw your own portrait / Africans in Tudor England Mary Fillis John ‘a More’ John Blanke Catalina de Cardones Dederi Jaquoah Shakespeare’s Dark Lady Sonnets Sonnet 130 / Mystery on Roanoke Island – John White Newfoundland Croatoan Hatteras Dare Stones / Blunderbess Rides Out story by Freya Hardy / Throwing shade – Shakespearean insults / Win Nickelodeon EXPERImake science kits / Make Elizabethan pomander
July/August 2017 – Utopia
Eden Dilmun Hesperides Sir Thomas More slaves Who does the dirty jobs? H G Wells Time Machine Eloi Morlocks dystopia / Spaceship Earth – Buckminster Fuller geodesic domes synergetics Dymaxion / How to be a green inventor – mind map football generator intellectual property / Make a coral reef / Deep-water coral reefs – photic zone zooxanthellae symbiotic relationships marine snow acidification/ Meet Mike Davis – writer producer director Liz Bonnin David Attenborough Galapagos Great Barrier Reef – film-making tips / Legend of Atlantis – Plato The Republic Solon Thera Santorini Crete Minoans / Santorini science – lagoon caldera lava magma chamber pyroclastic flows Volcanic Explosivity Index collapsing caldera experiment / Just think about A perfect society – GDP GNH Gross National Happiness Kingdom of Bhutan / Plato – Academus The Academy Socrates metaphysics Aristotle / Diving to Heracleion – off north Egyptian coastline / Swimming with Kit – front crawl freestyle Swim Safe rip currents / Make Atlantis / Birthday Wish story by Avantika Taneja / Betterworld survey – readers’ responses to ‘What one thing would you change to make the world better?’ / Pepe’s perfect picnic challenge / Book club – Tamsin and the Deep reviews – introducing Dave Pigeon (Nuggets!) by Swapna Haddow / Win Family tickets to Awful Auntie Live on stage / Magic maths Trick to Play on Grandad – calculations = 3333
June 2017 – Harry Potter
Colour-changing dragon’s blood potion – anthocyanins acid alkaline pH scale corrosive irritant gastric acid universal indicator – make a colour-changing potion / Super Snakes Medusa basilisk cockatrice cobra venom vibrations tongue freeze response snake charmers / Just think about Being a fan – moderation in all things / Make Enchanted wizard’s castle / Who do you think they are? – Potter names – Greek and Roman links / Aquila peers at Robert Boyle – philosopher’s stone base metals Lapis Philosophorum alchemy Nicolas Flamel Isaac Newton elements / Statistics – Probability odds relative risk misleading stats / What Lies Beneath story by Amy Sparkes / Win a Harry Potter Hogwarts House-themed goody bag / Magic maths – finding the day of the week for a given date
May 2017 – Maths in Nature
Seeing sound – high frequency cymatics Ernst Chladni Grace Digney Make an eidophone / Slimemoulds – cells plasmodium mazes amoeba Physarum polycephalum sclerotium / Design in nature – Fibonacci sequence phi 1.618 logarithmic spiral Archimedean spiral Adolf Zeising / Make Jewelled spiderweb / Make Fibonacci filter / Here’s looking at Euclid – man or myth? Elements / PSHE by Kate Daniels – banter going too far teasing / Shadow Stalker story by Laurence Raphael Brothers / Maths in Conservation – Nature surveys citizen science bee walk butterfly count ladybird challenge bat detector eggcase hunt / Win School of Music book / Win Secret of Black Rock book / Magic maths Roman numerals
April 2017 – Chocolate
Chocolate science – estimate speed of light using microwave oven electromagnetic spectrum / Cocoa tree – Theobroma cacao cultivation cocoa butter white chocolate caffeine theobromine / Make Chocolate shambles / Just think about… What is a fair price for chocolate – fair trade Fairtrade / The first chocolate – Mexico Olmecs Maya Aztec currency medicine stimulant dopamine / Sugar and sport – saccharides ‘ose’ sugars salivary amylase complex carbohydrates how much sugar do we need? hitting the wall ‘bonking’ / Respect – valuing differences ‘hate crime’ self-respect / Time Waits story part two by Amy Sparkes / Win Do Nice, Be Kind, Spread Happy books by Bernadette Russell – Win Family treat hampers from Divine chocolate / Magic maths The Knockout Competition – set up with odd number byes automatic entry to round 2
March 2017 – Mr Hawking’s BIG Idea
Stephen Hawking – Dikran Tahta maths teacher motor neurone disease Hawking Radiation / What is a black hole? Infinite density Big Bang Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMBR) white noise Big Crunch? Puffed rice singularity? Density experiment – why puffed rice jumps around on clingfilm / Make a time-traveller’s gauntlet / Animal time travel – internal biological clock plants flies small animals information processed at high speeds jays store food / How to spot a black hole – event horizon / Book club – The Bone Sparrow interview with Zana Fraillon – reader’s book review – introducing Tamsin And The Deep / Time Waits story part one by Amy Sparkes / Lucy Hawking interview / Win GeoSafari Vega 360 telescope / Win Set of 5 ‘George’ books by Lucy and Stephen Hawking / Magic Maths Finding pi
February 2017 – Hong Kong
Hong Kong – British rule 99-year lease long working hours infographic Pros cons of life in HK / Fibre optics – Charles K. Kao 2009 Nobel Prize Physics broadband total internal reflection – make ‘water optic’ with bottle and torch / Make Rooster kite / Swallowing clouds – Chinese street food wonton soup recipe / Make a lunar calendar – orbit and rotation times synchronous rotation Moon phases / Letters from readers in Hong Kong / The Woman on the Moon story Chinese Moon myth / Way of the Water – Taoism Lao Tzu Wu-wei / Win Eco Week for 2 at CAT mid-Wales / Magic maths – Chinese lucky numbers 8
January 2017 – Dinosaurs
Birds and dinosaurs – Archaeopteryx Sinosauropteryx extinction theory / Micrometeorites – find space debris in water butt or gutter / Make Tyrannosaurus rex skull / Dinosaur CSI – paleontology geobiology synchrotron Allosaurus geochemistry computational zoology / Dinosaur wars – Gideon Mantell Richard Owen / Fossil hunting UK – 10 top sites – Waterloo Bay Larne NI, Helmsdale Scotland, Mappleton E.Yorkshire, Hunstanton Norfolk, Wren’s Nest Dudley W.Midlands, Penarth S.Wales, Warden Point Isle of Sheppey Kent, Seven Sisters E.Sussex, Compton Bay IOW, Lyme Regis Dorset – fossil etiquette equipment safety / Pictures in the Smoke story by Angela Shepherd / Pen friend club / Win Tyrannosaurus Rex 51-piece model kit / Win BEHOLD! the Dinosaurs! book / Magic maths – The Golden Ratio – Greek phi pentagram Pythagoras Great Pyramid Fibonacci
December 2016 – Midwinter Feast
When will it be Christmas? – time perception three-minute challenge Oddball Effect slow-motion scariness / Make stars / Saturnalia Ancient Rome food gifts clothes parties Lord of Misrule / Just think about Can we control what we like? – Learn to like sprouts? Genes environment free will mindfulness / Winter food in literature – Alice Harry Potter Wind in Willows Narnia Hobbit – recipes Watermelon Christmas tree pops Coconut mini snowballs Gingerbread stars / When Christmas was banned – Cromwell Puritans mince pies / Bleak midwinter – festivals hormones serotonin ecstasy[drug] SAD Seasonal Affective Disorder light box melatonin tryptophan effect of daylight on organisms / The Ice Fair story part 2 by Freya Hardy / Meet toy designer Gavin Strange / Win Family Tickets to Running Wild Live / Win Winter Magic book / Magic maths – Perfect numbers abundant numbers deficient numbers
November 2016 – Codes & Coding
DNA – molecules Deoxyribonucleic acid genome double helix backbones base pairs DNA fingerprint – digital information stored as artificial DNA – see your own DNA / Make Morse Code transmitter / Friends in a modern world – Robin Dunbar’s Number 150 social media internet safety / Tomorrow’s engineers – Abbie Hutty ExoMars Rover Ada Lovelace computer programmer Lord Byron Charles Babbage Difference Engine Analytical Engine / Aquila peers at Anthony Babington Plot to overthrow Elizabeth I – Mary Queen of Scots Francis Walsingham Thomas Phelippes Fotheringhay Castle Frequency Analysis codes ciphers cyphers / Alan Turing Enigma machine artificial intelligence first stored program computer Manchester Mark 1 Binary code / The Ice Fair story part 1 by Freya Hardy / Book Club – reviews First Class Murder – introducing The Bone Sparrow / Win SAM Labs construction kit / Win Coder Dojo ‘Create with Code – Build Your Own Website’ book / Magic maths Collatz’s Conjecture 1937
October 2016 – Bones
Tim Peake marathon in space gravity stresses bone mass microgravity bone density Puffy-face bird-leg syndrome Bone density experiment with cheesy footballs / Dissect owl pellet – where to find pellets identifying remains / Bone whisperers osteoarchaeology – getting information from old bones / The Jolly Roger – designers skull and crossbones Black Sam Bellamy Edward England John Taylor Edward Teach a.k.a. Blackbeard siege of Charleston / Napier’s bones – John Napier Marvellous Merchiston Rabdologia – how to use number strips – A Description of the Marvellous Rule of Logarithms – improvement of crop production / The Prison of Stone story by Amy Sparkes / Magic maths – calculating squared and cubed numbers / Win Human skeleton model / Who told you that your funny bone is a bone? / History detective – Mount up! Mounting blocks surveyors benchmarks
September 2016 – Children of World War II
A child’s life in WWII – evacuation reminiscences / Penicillin – antibiotic Alexander Fleming Penicillium Howard Florey Ernst B. Chain Margaret Hutchinson Rousseau resistance Longitude Prize – grow your own penicillin / Make model Anderson Shelter / Scouts & Guides in WWII – the War Effort badges bazaars scrap painting white lines help during Blitz Polish resistance / Occupation of Channel Islands – life for children – invasion – evacuation / History you can visit – Churchill Museum Cabinet War Rooms Stockport Air Raid Shelters Anderson Shelters Cosford RAF Museum Imperial War Museum HMS Belfast RN Submarine Museum Eden Camp Malton Kent Battle of Britain Museum Pill Boxes Memorials / Sadie Simpson and the Scoop story Part 2 by Angela Shepherd / Make do and mend – patching jeans / Win Roald Dahl Museum Golden Tickets / Win What On Earth Timeline Collection
July/August 2016 – Egypt
Aquila peers at Howard Carter – Napoleon Giovanni Battista Belzoni decoding hieroglyphs Rosetta stone Jean-Francois Champollion / Measuring time – sundials astronomy oil lamps candles – make water clock / Make nemes headdress / Nile crocodiles – diet palatal valve lactic acid carbon dioxide – differences alligators / Egypt timeline – 7000 BC to 30 BC / Just think about Magic science technology – psychology the magical spells wishes / Ask Amenhotep – imaginary letters to Egyptian ‘agony aunt’ – Egyptian party dentistry punishment for theft / The Test story part 2 by Amy Sparkes / Egyptian fire-pit bread / Summer activity spread / Mysteries of the pyramids – alignment of pyramids Pole star alpha Draconis Richard Proctor Orion Osiris Sirius Nile flooding Robert Bauval Alnitak / Egyptian maths – not-so-nifty numbers – decimal no zero multiplication fractions measurements cubit digit palm span stature / How to jump higher – power strength squat speed standing longjump depth jump plyometrics muscles slow and fast twitch aerobic anaerobic / Letters from Egypt – readers’ lives / Make pop-up matchbox mummy / Anxiety and transition by Kate Daniels – changing schools growth development stress mindfulness / Bookclub – Nowhere Emporium reviews First Class Murder by Robin Stevens / Sadie Simpson and The Scoop story part 1 by Angela Shepherd / Win Revell Thunder & Bolt radio-controlled car / Win tickets to Sunken cities British Museum exhibition runners-up prize Secret Treasures of Ancient Egypt books / Magic maths Amazing adding – making up to 9 attach 2 subtract 2
June 2016 – Roald Dahl
Lickable wallpaper – make it – taste buds receptor cells saliva capsaicin gelatine agar reversible reaction – diagram of taste bud / Aquila peers into the past at the Pendle Witches – King James 1 Dame Demdike Widow Chattox Lancaster Castle / Just think – Can hunting be justified? – wildlife management / Make Growing Granny with telescopic neck / The life of Roald Dahl – poor schoolboy English – fighter pilot – museum story centre / Orphans in literature by Katherine Rundell – Some top orphans in literature archetypes / Guess the jellybeans in jar – crowd estimates averages / The Test story Part 1 by Amy Sparkes / Pen friend club / Win Oxford Roald Dahl Dictionary / Magic maths – Factorials! – number of ways to do four chores / Who told you that all the Earth’s soil has passed through the body of an earthworm?
May 2016 – Daredevils
Suspension bridges – Akashi Kaikyo earthquake Tacoma Narrows – build your own – weight-bearing experiment / Formula One racing – aerodynamics Jackie Stewart safety / Aquila peers at the last fatal pistol duel in England – James Seton Henry Hawkey duelling terms / Risk taking in animal world – cleaner fish peacocks eagles risk-takers risk-avoiders / Aquila peers at Harriet Tubman slaves ‘underground railroad’ slavery / Make a rubber-band racer / Secret Tunnel story part 2 by Angela Holroyd / Don’t try this at home – Tim Peake astronaut former military helicopter pilot Jillian Morris shark photographer conservationist Andre Hartmann shark whisperer hypnosis tonic immobility unlearned reflex / Win Shackleton’s Journey books by William Grill / Magic maths – school holiday pocket money ‘power’ button on calculator / Who told you that the Earth orbits the Sun?
April 2016 – Living Underground
Stalactites – stalagmites minerals calcium magnesium straw stalactite – grow your own salt stalactite / Pit ponies – West Stanley pit disaster Durham underground stables tubs / Make Mole-in-a-hole / Meerkats – suricates sentries calls mobs gangs clans matriarchal alpha female territories fact file hierarchy / Happiness – helping others talking sharing feelings / Aquila peers at London Underground – oldest cut and cover Travelling Shield drill air-raid shelters / Prison of Stone story by Amy Sparkes / Book club / Win Family tickets to Cutty Sark / Magic maths – Art with 7 / History detective – cannon bollards
March 2016 – Mighty Maths
Animal facts by numbers – snakes and ladders game with a difference / Calculating pi with pies – pi day March 14 / Make tessellated paper sculptures / Big numbers – index numbers indices decimal equivalence / Just think about Types of Truth – theories of correspondence, consensus, coherence, pragmatism – electrons as particles and waves / Aquila peers at Ancient Greek geeks – geometry Eratosthenes Earth’s circumference Pythagoras’ Theorem Euclid Archimedes Antikythera Mechanism / Meet innovator, entrepreneur, inventor Trisha Prabhu – stop cyber bullying ReThink / The Storyteller story by Amy Sparkes / Win Family tickets to Geronimo festival / Magic Maths – Magic squares Harry L. Nelson Martin Gardner
February 2016 – Incredible Journeys
Digestive tract transit experiment – nutrients saliva enzymes oesophagus bacteria intestines peristalsis gut flora flatulence faeces / Migrations food breeding protection birds shellducks salmon plankton – most intrepid travellers / Just think about The Migration Crisis – Syria Golden Rule past and present migrations / John Franklin and the search for the Northwest Passage – John Richardson cannibalism / Make marble run / Q&A Abi Elphinstone / Win Dreamsnatcher and Shadow Keeper books / Every Child Wild – Wildlife Trusts ideas for outdoor fun plan a trip nocturnal nature walk/ Class Five in Space story by Jenny Woods / Magic maths 11 well-behaved number / History detective boot scrapers
January 2016 – King Arthur
End of Roman Britain – Lullingstone Mildenhall Hoxne Wroxeter vicars dioceses Latin Tintagel Aurelius Ambrosius Artos nickname / Mysterious mist – cloud in bottle experiment fog meteorologists how mist forms dew-point evaporation / Just think about… the nature of myth Arthurian legend Avalon hidden meanings beyond everyday existence / Camelot – Geoffrey of Monmouth Thomas Malory castle life gong farmer garderobe / Sir Gawain and Green Knight 14th-century poem / Make Excalibur / Bears – size diet danger how to stare out a bear / Arthur’s School Report story by Amy Sparkes / Win Letter for the King and Secrets of the Wild Wood by Tonke Dragt / Magic maths Nicomachus / Who told you that post-Roman Britons were smelly barbarians?
December 2015 – Memory
Biological basis – cells synapses sensory short-term long-term hippocampus amygdala / Elephants never forget – Jenny Shirley grief rituals / Make Museum of Me / Mnemonics – method of loci peg words first-letter poems narratives / Just think about… Should I be punished for something I don’t remember doing? / Make iced sweetie houses / Smell and memory – olfactory bulb amygdala hippocampus / The Fairy Godmother’s Apprentice story Episode 2 by Angela Shepherd / Win Family Tickets to We Are Stars / Magic maths Karl Friedrich Gauss
AQUILA Christmas supplement / Mistletoe / Phobias / La Befana legend of Epiphany / Mystery of Christmas pickle / Night of radishes / Who told you that no two snowflakes are alike? / Snowflake fractals / How long does Father Christmas have to visit every house in the world on Christmas Eve? / Christmas crossword / Wily words / A midway middle – word pairs / Magic movie wordsearch / Genuine or made-up Christmas traditions? / Make a wing-flapping owl / The Haunted Bridge story by Angela Holroyd
November 2015 – Life on Mars
The Martians are coming! – Schiaparelli canals Herschel Tesla Marconi electrical signals beams of light Viking 1 Rover / Extremophiles – life in extreme environments astrobiology Yellowstone National Park Atacama Desert Antarctica / Roman god Mars – statues war cry god of nature seed-sowing March October festivals Ares Venus Romulus Remus Augustus / Just think Social life on Mars – Social Contract theorists Socialists Hobbes / Aquila peers at The War of the Worlds – H. G. Wells US radio play 1938 Orson Welles Quito Ecuador 1949 Cologne Germany 1974 spoof cathedral collapse / Mars base – letter from a resident of Mars in 2080 / Make a Mars Rover / The Fairy Godmother’s Apprentice story Episode 1 by Angela Shepherd / Win Gangsta Granny family tickets / Magic Maths – 1-2-3 / News – Liquid water found on Mars
October 2015 – The Invisible issue
Invisible world – camouflage spots stripes seasonal change pituitary gland warships Paul Klee moths ultrasonic clicks military uses radio jamming / Make a ghillie suit / Ghost hunting in art – whale found in View of Scheveningen Sands Hendrick van Anthonissen / Can you make something invisible? Oil water experiment refraction refractive index / Static electricity – lightning molecules atoms conductors insulators / Archaeology – seeing the invisible dating artefacts pollen grains carbon-14 thermoluminescence magnetic pole x-rays parch marks aerial photography LiDAR light detection and ranging / Priest holes – Nicholas Owen Little John Hindlip Hall / The Perfect Pet story by Amy Sparkes / Queen Mary 2 interview with Captain Wells – facts figures QM2 / Win Imelda and the Goblin King book / Win Usborne Art Activity Book / Magic Maths – Four forever more / Who told you that chameleons change their colour to blend in with their background?
September 2015 – The Victorians
Pinhole camera – camera obscura Daguerre Niepce Fox Talbot / Victorian photography – history Eastman Kodak photojournalism / Animal-loving Victorians – Queen Victoria’s pets menageries zoos circuses George Wombwell Frances Power Cobbe Lord Shaftesbury Anna Sewell / Philanthropy in Victorian England – Anthony Ashley Cooper seventh Earl of Shaftesbury Angela Burdett-Coutts Charles Dickens Charles Kingsley Titus Salt Octavia Hill Catherine and William Booth John Passmore Edwards Dr Barnardo’s / Make an automaton / Victorian vernacular words – scientist anaesthesia hello ‘never-mention-ems’ ‘floccinaucity’ ‘tatur-trap’ ‘gigglemug’ ‘bag o’mystery’ / Eric Numbskull and the Fenrir Wolf story part 2 by Julie Coomer / Victorian classifieds / Win Puffin books / Who told you that you are never more than six feet from a rat?
July/August 2015 – Shipwrecks/Australia
Submersibles submarines buoyancy – make a submersible / Aquila peers at Matthew Flinders / Unsinkable Project Habbakuk Habakkuk Geoffrey Pyke Pykrete Battle of the Atlantic Bergships conscientious objectors / Pepe learns the commands Down Heel Leave-it Paw / Bronze age shipwrecks Ulu-Burun dendrochronology / Make paint from rocks soil plants / Salt pans Kati Thanda Lake Eyre closed drainage basin salinity – make a salt pan / Great Barrier Reef how coral reefs are made / Astra’s guide to Southern sky NGC4755 Jewel Box Captain Cook Tahiti – Curiosity Mars Rover selfies brine on Mars / Mapping Australia James Cook Endeavour longitude latitude draw your own maps / Letters from Australian readers / Mythological Australian animals Rainbow serpent Bobbi-Bobbi Bunyip Drop bear Min-min lights / Make Jurassic stationery / Surf science – How waves form and break – fetch tube – best surf spots – surfing glossary / The Brief Visit of Galileo Neale story by Alice Nuttall / Eric Numbskull and the Fenrir Wolf story Part 1 by Julie Coomer / Win Frog Bike accessories / Win Summer Action Hover Disc / Who told you that Winston Churchill invented the onesie?
June 2015 – The Incas
The Inca Empire – 10m people Wari Atahualpa Pizarro / Water systems – build your own water channel / Mythology – Moon calendars Viracocha, Manco Capac, Pachacamac, Mama Pacha, Inti, Mama Kilya, Ayar, Ayar Cachi, Apu Illapu, Illapa, Mama Cocha / Make a Suncatcher / Archaeology – no doors royal estates no wheels stretched skulls mummified girl / Talking knots – quipus numbers civil records yupana counting boards / The Pampas Squeeze story by J. D. Chaney / Win Where’s Wally? Sticker Book / Who told you that Henry VIII had six wives?
May 2015 – Big Statistics
Probability – Girolamo Cardano Liber de Ludo Aleae Book on Games of Chance – exercises using dice – spinners / Big AQUILA Survey results / Make your own infographic – purpose example charts timelines / Big data – Google Flu Trends refrigerators farming medicine sports / Behind the scenes at Buckingham Palace – employment rooms departments – work done by footman liveried worker correspondence officer / Cave-in story by J. D. Chaney / Randomonster drawing game / Win This Is Not A Maths Book / Who told you that the River Nile is in Egypt?
April 2015 – The French Revolution
Revolution! – Estates Louis XVI Tennis Court Oath storming of Bastille revolution timeline / Marie Sophie Germain – mathematician posing as Monsieur LeBlanc Joseph-Louis Legrange Adrien-Marie Legendre Karl Friedrich Gauss Pierre de Fermat Germain’s Theorem – number puzzles / Just think – How free and equal can a society be? – Liberté egalité fraternité Reign of Terror 1793-94 four types of equality two types of freedom / Make an 18th-century wig / Versailles timeslip – ghosts in Versailles? Eleanor Jourdain Annie Moberly 1901 / Antoine Lavoisier gunpowder metric system social reforms wife Marie-Anne / Who was Marie Antoinette? – her life / The Mermaid of Ys traditional Breton folktale retold by Freya Hardy / Win Story Stones / Who told you that the guillotine was invented during the French Revolution?
March 2015 – Science of Humour
A sense of humour – babies learning to laugh social referencing brain responses / Improvisation – learn to improvise – use in later life / Just think – do we have a right to free speech? offence cartoons humour a powerful tool / Make tickle machine / Laughing animals – rats chimps apes noises emitted in play / Jobs of tomorrow – time-travel invisibility teleportation Big Bang Fair / Aquila peers at historical hoaxes – Cottingley Fairies / It’s No Joke story by Jenny Woods / Win 6 books / Who told you that Napoleon was short?
February 2015 – Horses
Horse evolution – from Hyracotherium to Equus – climate change savannah natural selection mutations artificial selection fossil record / A day in the life of a show-jumper – 10-year-old Theo’s day / Make a Pegasus mobile / Native American horsemanship – mustang buffalo Comanche George Catlin warpaint Reservations / George Stubbs Whistlejacket / Horses and humans – travel stagecoaches farming war – horse quiz match saying to meaning / The Night Mare story by Jenny Woods / Story of horsepower – Samuel Whitbread James Watt sun and planet gears / Win Pony Annual 2015 / Win Dragon Knight figure / Who told you that Sir Francis Drake commanded the English fleet against the Spanish Armada in 1588?
January 2015 – Robots
Singularity – when machines become smarter than humans / Just think – Moral code for computers – Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics / Make a jiggering jitterbot / Zeppelin attack! – first airship bombing raid on Norfolk Peter Strasser Kaiser Wilhelm II RAF LZ129 Hindenberg / Valkyrie – NASA Mars robot humanoid superhero / Aquila peers at how the Victorians imagined and shaped the future – Wheatstone Babbage Muybridge Edison Verne Wells – Steampunk for kids / What exactly is a robot? – GOFAIR Shakey NewFAI / A Spark of Life? story by Angela Holroyd / Win Horrible Histories family theatre tickets / Who told you that King John signed the Magna Carta in 1215?
December 2014 – Storytellers/Christmas
Telling tales – traditional storytelling legends themes Persephone Pluto Creiddylad Poseidon Neptune Aesop / Aquila peers at Hans Christian Andersen – Jonas Collin holiday with Charles Dickens The Fir Tree / Make a diorama / Science midwinter – suspended animation antifreeze eggs pupae diapause hibernation deciduous trees seeds dormancy – experiment freeze salt water cell damage by ice crystals / Kit – match of the century Christmas truce 1914 football matches / Pepe dog training – sit stay come / A Christmas to Remember story by Angela Holroyd / Wordworm’s Christmas quiz-word / Win Horrible Histories Big Fat Christmas Book / Who told you that Father Christmas dresses in red as the result of a Coca-Cola advert campaign?
November 2014 – Mechanics of Music
Sound – energy echoes concert halls recording studios music festivals delay tower headphones sound mirrors ranging sound weapons / Make a diddley bow / Landfillharmonic Orchestra Asunción Paraguay Cateura village Favio Chavez Nicolás Gómez ‘Cola’ / Dyslexia – brain hemispheres what to do if you suspect dyslexia / Aquila peers at Mozart 1756-1791 – Miserere written out from memory / Sound collector – British Library Sound Archive / The Workhouse Girls story Part 2 by Angela Shepherd / Fairground organs / Win Write and Draw Your Own Comics book / Who told you that violin strings are made from catgut?
October 2014 – Fascinating Fungi
Can mushrooms save the planet? – pollution plastics mycelium MycoBond Styrofoam fungus fungi yeast / Just think – Nature: guide or threat? Human nature natural selection seasons body clock / Battling with bacteria – mushrooms in medicine fungal spores prebiotics Fleming 1928 Penicillium Notatum penicillin tuberculosis tb leprosy Agaricus blazei Lentilan Shiitake Cyclosporine Beauveria nivea / Grow king oyster mushrooms / Maths of infection – how diseases spread SIR models / Aquila peers at Rachel Carson US Fish and Wildlife Service aquatic biologist pesticides DDT / Starting your own business – Henry Patterson Not Before Tea Ally Mollo Guardian Angel Rainbow Division Leanna Archer Leanna’s Hair Thomas Suarez CarrotCorp James Gill GoSquared / Make spore prints / Win Laser Pegs Helicopter kit / The Workhouse Girls story part 1 by Angela Shepherd / Win Mushrooms and Toadstools of Britain and Europe book / Who told you that Robin Hood and his merry men wore green tights?
September 2014 – Pompeii
Voracious volcanoes – Vesuvius crust mantle tectonic plates black smokers Krakatoa Krakatau caldera geothermal / Just think – Why do tragedies happen problem of evil / Make plaster of Paris plaque / Roman feast – table manners diet fish sauce ‘mappae’ doggy bag / Science at Pompeii – diet paintings statues scrolls forensics health / Aquila peers at Pliny the Younger – Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus letters account of Vesuvius erupting / Pompeii myth busters – Pompeians health conscious – a town ahead of its time – no one saw the eruption coming – Vesuvius exploded 24 Aug 79 – thousands killed – town lay forgotten / Gaius’s Sea of Fire story by J. D. Chaney / Win Laser Pegs construction kit / Win set of 20 Puffin paperbacks / Who told you that Roman soldiers were paid in salt?
July/August 2014 – Pets/Swamps
Medical Detection Dogs – disease-detecting pets – how we smell / Make a ride-on pet dragon / Cats in Ancient Egypt – Bastet Herodotus cats at sea weather superstitions/ Reader survey / Summer activity section – quizzes, puzzles, things to do / Slime mould Dictyostelium discoideum dicty cAMP signal planning road systems Alan Turing maths equations chemical reactions form patterns Belousov Zhabotinsky – spiral pattern Python code / Pets in literature – Beatrix Potter Greyfriars Bobby / How to make your own video – genres styles storyboards props editing transitions glossary / Rabbits at risk – need large hutch and space – problems with ears teeth nails vet bills / Wetlands topic / How to paint water and reflections / Save Nariva Swamp Trinidad & Tobago – manatees ecosystems Ramsar Convention habitat destruction / Ace story part 2 by Jenny Woods / Pepe meets a platypus – monotremes electroreception venomous spur / Polly meets coracle-maker Alistair Phillips / Secrets of Flag Fen – Bronze Age wooden walkway and platform discovery Francis Pryor oldest wheel in England Archaeology Park / Sadie Simpson Takes the Stage story by Angela Shepherd / Win Vtriker / Win Molkky Skittles set / Who told you that the lion is the most dangerous animal? / Who told you that a cat always lands on its feet?
June 2014 – Up in the Air
Air experiments – pressure convection cell mini-mobile / Make a kite from plastic bags / Bats – 17 species UK breeding habitat characteristics pipistrelle soprano pipistrelle serotine long-eared Daubenton’s water bat / Cars that are out of this world – Moon buggies Mars rovers Lunokhod Sojourner Valerie Ambroise Spirit Opportunity Curiosity Yutu (Jade Rabbit) Moon Buggy Chandrayaan ExoMars Google Lunar XPrize / Aquila peers at hot-air ballooning – Montgolfier brothers 1783 Pilâtre de Rozier Marquis d’Arlandes Vincenzo Lunardi Richard Branson Per Lindstrand Don Cameron / Where the Internet lives – what is the Internet data centres fibre optics transatlantic copper wire WiFi Bluetooth ARPAnet Tim Berners-Lee / Ace story part 1 by Jenny Woods / Bessie Coleman – first African American woman to earn pilot’s licence / Win ‘signed’ print of Pepe / Who told you that Leonardo da Vinci invented the helicopter?
May 2014 – The Science of Colour
What is colour? – Spectrum Isaac Newton prism rainbows sunsets John Tyndall – milk bottle experiment x-rays microwaves / Aquila peers at William Perkin – quinine coal tar mauve purple dye mauveine / Drawing and painting landscapes / Colour myth-busters – red angers bulls – carrots turn skin orange – yellow-bellied cowards – turning green – girls blue, boys pink – indigo dye – only royals wear purple / Meet artists Becca Stadtlander Zachary Copfer – bacteriography / Maths in art Kasimir Malevich suprematism M C Escher tessellations Wassily Kandinsky – try your own geometric art / Just think – what is art? Equivalent VIII pile of bricks / A Twist of Fate story by Angela Holroyd / Win Revell flip-over Stunt Car Two Side / Who told you that we all have five senses?
April 2014 – Rediscover Reptiles
Chameleons – camouflage mood temperature 360° eyesight cuttlefish melanin / Make an articulated snake / Aquila peers at Mary Anning – Lyme Regis 1799 fossil hunting Georges Cuvier / Win Prehistoric Expedition paleontologist kit / Snakebite science – poison venom enzymes cytotoxins protolytic cytotoxic amino acids – pineapple jelly setting experiment / Win EUREKA! amazing scientific discoveries book / Reptile names – Carl von Linne Linnaeus Interpreting Latin names / Meet reptile-keeper Ben Tapley – keeping reptiles and amphibians at London Zoo / A Dog Will Have His Day story by Elizabeth Knight / Fire-breathing fractals – dragon curve folded paper – code to create using Raspberry Pi / Who told you that snakes are hypnotized by music?
March 2014 – Emergency aid
Vaccination – antigens pathogens bacteria viruses antibodies lymphocytes immune herd immunity Thucydides Chinese powdered smallpox pustules Edward Jenner / Animals at war PDSA Maria Dickin Medal – pigeons dogs horses cat oxen camels elephants African pouched rat turkeys dolphins sea lions / Draw and paint spring flowers / Florence Nightingale – Beeston Notts Crimean War – two case histories pre- and post-Nightingale / Médecins Sans Frontières Doctors Without Borders Biafra Syria Philippines Typhoon Haiyan Kabul Afghanistan / Technology in troubled times – wifi balloons Project Loon mobile money M-Pesa Engineers Without Borders water purification solar-powered fridges Twitter shark tweets / Tiger Trap story by J. D. Chaney / Win Super Sleuth vocabulary game / Who told you that Nero played the fiddle while Rome burned?
February 2014 – Scandinavia
Aurora Borealis Northern lights – where to see them mythology / Aquila peers at Thor Heyerdahl Kon-tiki South America Polynesia Diffusionists vs Separatists / Make a Viking longship / Readers in Scandinavia / Paper Chase story by Mary E. Rosambeau / Win Twisted Winter book / Win Wild Town book / Who told you that London’s ‘Big Ben’ is a famous clock?
January 2014 – Giants
Win Percy Jackson Sea of Monsters DVD / Giant’s Causeway basalt columns Finn McCool Benandonner hexagons prisms – things to do make shapes with triangles – investigate nets / Make giant hands / Science of growth bone structure growth plate teens adults oestrogen testosterone osteoblasts osteoclasts cartilage / Just think Is what you see really there? Immanuel Kant Critique of Pure Reason / Win Skull in the Wood book / Giants of the animal kingdom – blue whale squid spider crab tortoise giraffe lion’s mane jellyfish African elephant / Coping with failure – Michael Jordan Beatles Elvis David Beckham Spencer Silver post-it notes Alexander Fleming / Seawatch / How high can you jump? Gravity Moon Mercury and other planets / The Man in the Woods story by Amy Sparkes / Who told you that your body is as old as you are?
December 2013 – Masks & Costumes
Win Mask ‘n’ Ask game / The science of ice – molecules lattice hydrogen bonds x-ray crystallography freezing water experiment icebergs cutting ice-block experiment glaciers clathrates permafrost methane ice hotels / Make masks – comics stars bird / Where’s Pepe at costume ball? / Wordworm’s snowflake Christmas crossword / Festive folk traditions – Mummers ‘nominy’ hobby-horse Father Christmas St Nicholas pantomimes Commedia dell’arte Harlequin Columbine Pantaloon Clown Pierrot Pulcinella Punch Judy Harlequinade Joseph Grimaldi Morris men Horn dance Abbots Bromley Will Kempe 1599 / Native American masks & costume – Lakota South Dakota masks made from cedar corn gourds leather buffalo hide – single-face mechanical transformation – horse masks raven feathers Journey Museum Rapid City power animals totem poles powwows / Meet author Tone Almhjell / Win Twistrose Key book / Costume Drama story by Jackie Banerjee / Who told you that dogs only wag their tails when they are happy?
November 2013 – The Planets
Win MoonScope / Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year / Aquila peers into the past at Galileo – geocentric heliocentric Copernicus Kepler telescope Jupiter’s moons / Win Mind Benders puzzle book / Solar System walk – a walk along a beach to show relative distances of planets from Sun / Just think about time travel / Fascinating planet facts / Life on other planets – chemicals carbon water exoplanets / Make Solar System boardgame / Serena and the Knights of St John story by Karin Bachmann / Who told you that the Great Wall of China is the only man-made structure visible from space?
October 2013 – Predators
Win Power of Five series of books by Anthony Horowitz / Aquila peers into the past at explorer Mary Kingsley / Make a snake doorguard draught excluder / Science scene – food chains webs pyramids biomass pitfall-trap / Predators – big cats wolves pythons komodo dragons polar bears killer whales leopard seals crocodiles great white sharks eagles little owls praying mantis dragonflies / Meet Steve Backshall – adventurer naturalist author / Win Predators book by Steve Backshall / Make pumpkin recipes – pasties soup / Paws for thought – Tibor Sumatran tiger / Doggy Paddle story by Jackie Banerjee / Predators quiz / Who told you that wolves are dangerous and likely to kill you?
September 2013 – Medieval Times
Win family tickets to Horrible Science show / Infection control – tummy bugs norovirus nausea vomiting diarrhoea communicable diseases / How to draw and paint pets / William the Conqueror Domesday Book Magna Carta Declaration of Arbroath Black Death Peasants’ Revolt Battle of Bosworth Field Henry Tudor / Jousting and heraldry – heralds – coats of arms tinctures ordinaires symbols tournaments ‘joust a plaisance’ ‘pas d’armes’ the lists chivalry – design your own coat of arms / The Black Death bubonic plague Great Pestilence buboes rats fleas abandoned villages / Archaeology – castles Richard III body in car park monasteries priories churches village life coppice / Win Cross-Sections Castle book / A Verray Parfit Gentil Knight story by Elizabeth Knight / Bestiaries animals of the imagination unicorn phoenix griffin / Who told you that we only use 10% of our brains?
July/August 2013 – Birdwatching/The Circus
Win Spin Mania / SAMYO National Youth Orchestra for Indian Music – ragas mridangam santoor sitar tabla veena / Cetaceans echolocation whale songs tail slapping seawatch foundation / Aquila peers at Dr Martin Luther King Jr – segregation civil rights Rosa Parks John Lewis Diane Nash Coretta Scott King / Birdwatching for beginners – gardens reserves equipment BTO RSPB / Science scene – fit to fly – surface area volume lift ostrich hummingbird heat loss lightweight bones / Make bird feeder / How to draw and paint birds / Wordworm Latin bird names Linnaeus / Win Interactive Art Book / Circus – big top Circus Maximus Philip Astley Charles Dibdina Charles Hughes Joshuah Purdy Brown Chinese State Circus flea circus / Science – centre of mass gravity velocity acceleration centripetal force rotation energy / Make juggling balls / Aquila peers at Roman Circus – chariots gladiators Colosseum bestiarii / Granny Grace’s Secret story by Angela Holroyd / Who told you that Viking warriors wore helmets with horns? / Just think… why can’t I do what I want? – needs and wants freedom society service Jean Piaget / Win Twilight CD / Cricket – story of The Ashes – greatest Ashes heroes Ashes quiz / Win cricket memorabilia – signed bats / Sadie Simpson’s Disaster Saturday story part 2 by Angela Shepherd / Win Revell Pirate Ship kit / Who told you that lightning never strikes the same place twice?
June 2013 – The Equator
Win Atlas Adventures boardgame / Happy birthday AQUILA! 20 years old – what was happening in 1993? / Win Geography Children’s Encyclopedia / Make armillary sphere / Lemurs of Madagascar – ring-tailed indris aye-aye mouse lemur sifaka / Equator – 40,075 kilometres long tropics of cancer capricorn seasons Earth’s axis rainforests animals people spacecraft pollywog shellback Hipparcus Eratosthenes Ptolemy / Permaculture farmers Trinidad – slash and burn landslides nitrogen fixers avocado grapefruit papaya cocoa Guilds / Aquila peers into the past – Emily Davison suffragette Epsom Lydia Becker 1867 Millicent Garrett Fawcett Emmeline Pankhurst / Sadie Simpson’s Disaster Saturday story part 1 by Angela Shepherd / Measurements – metric Imperial Babylonian how the metre was defined / Who told you that elephants are afraid of mice?
May 2013 – Sport
Win Brainbox card game / Horse riding – interview with 14-year-old rider / Sport and health – diet carbohydrates proteins fat vitamins minerals water muscles physique aerobic anaerobic training altitude drug testing / Make crazy golf / Top sport stars football boxing cricket tennis rowing athletics golf Pele Best Maradona Messi Ali Joe Louis Sugar Ray Leonard Mayweather Bradman Sobers Warne Kallis Navratilova Court Graf Williams Lipa Damian Redgrave Ginn Lewis Nurmi Bolt Didrickson Joyner-Kersee Ottey Felix Woods Nicklaus Jones / Maths sports statistics averages mode median mean / Just think genetic engineering selective breeding GM genetically modified / 150 Years of FA – early football FIFA UEFA training juniors / Paws for thought – games for dogs – find the treat tug of war fetch jumping obedience hide-and-seek grooming / Dan Sorts It Out story by Jeannette Ayton / Win More Interesting Than Your Teacher book / Who told you that carrots can help you see in the dark?
April 2013 – Captain Cook
Win Explore! The Most Dangerous Journeys of All Time book / Boredom may be good for you – brain beta mode brainwaves alpha waves electroencephalograph Steve Jobs Albert Einstein Google Pixar creative daydreamers / Disease detectives – food poisoning epidemiology food hygiene microbiology / John Harrison Chronometer – latitude longitude sextant Board of Longitude bimetallic strip / James Cook – Whitby Endeavour Joseph Banks scurvy New Zealand Australia – Resolution Hawaii Matthew Flinders / Things to grow – Johnny jump up viola tricolor potatoes plants without soil chickpeas mung beans alfalfa broccoli fenugreek / Wordworm – anagrams codes Julius Caesar code wheel Rail fence cipher Column code / A Dingo’s Bark story by J. D. Chaney / Paws for thought – swamp wallabies Edinburgh Zoo marsupials joey / Who told you that Christopher Columbus discovered America?
March 2013 – Big Cats
Win My Big Cats Journal / Make decorated spring celebration cake / Ministox racing – graded roof colours customised cars reinforced seat and roll cage – Ginetta Junior Championship Greenpower / Budgeting with pocket money – saving sharing spending keep records – account budget debt donation piggy bank / Carnivorous cats – herbivores carnivores omnivores canines carnassials incisors molars / Lions pride tigers striped fur and skin jaguars leopards / Drawing and painting tigers Henri Rousseau / Silent world of sign language deafness lip reading facial expression / The Leftover Frog story by Angela Shepherd / Win Alpha Animal board game / Who told you that the lion is the king of the jungle?
February 2013 – Canada
Win tickets to James and the Giant Peach / Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts / How one girl saved 250 horses on Sable Island – the letter of Michele Miller / Maple syrup – maple parties sugar woods sugar shacks cabanes a sucre – pancake recipe / Canadian readers – five pages of contributions / Maths problems – salmon jumping swimming kph / Ex-spud-ition to the Great Barrier Reef story part 2 by Sandra O’Neon / Paws for thought – Arktos polar bear with toothache / Who told you that camels store water in their humps?
January 2013 – Science special
Win Vtriker 3-wheel scooter / Space tourism Virgin Galactic SpaceShip Two White Knight Two Spaceport America – Lynx spaceplane Dream Chaser New Shepard SpaceX Dragon DragonRider capsule Boeing CST-100 – inflatable space stations Kevlar / Meet scientist Andrea Sella carbonitride hydrogen as fuel edible science / Win Incredible Edibles book / Harvey’s messy kitchen science / Large Hadron Collider atoms particles nucleus protons neutrons electrons quarks gluons hadrons Higgs boson Peter Higgs / History of computers smartphones microprocessor nanotechnology quantum computing store data in DNA artificial intelligence cloud / Renewable energy fossil fuels solar power wind turbines nuclear electric nuclear fusion hydrogen / Endangered species environmental changes biodiversity conservation / Paws for thought London Zoo animal weigh-in meerkat giant tortoise spectacled owl giant millipede penguin / Make Baked Alaska / Just think – has science found the truth? elements Thomas Kuhn Copernicus / Ex-spud-ition to the Great Barrier Reef story part 1 by Sandra O’Neon / Who told you that a penny dropped from the top of a tall building can kill someone on the ground below?
December 2012 – The AQUILA Christmas Party
Win Wobble Deck balance board / The Sami people of Lapland – reindeer kotas traditions tourism / Wolves – territories populations packs breeding hunting life expectancy / Life of author Lucy Boston – Green Knowe Hemingford Manor / Wordworm’s Christmas Crossword / Christmas party pull-out section – make paper chains candle holders mini crispy Christmas puddings name cards table sprinkles veggie kebabs cold turkey sandwiches cranberry & orange crush warm mulled blackcurrant – party games Santa says first letter last letter tower of flour lights camera action artist in the dark / Quiz of the year / Make box file / Just think are miracles possible? / Vanishing Act story by Pamela Morrison / Win Where My Wellies Take Me book / Who told you that if you get cold and wet you’ll catch a cold?
November 2012 – The story of silk
Win Enter The Story subscription / Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2012 / Science of silk – silk moth cocoon protein fibroin polymers amino acids – spider silk Madagascan Golden Orb spider cape Simon Peers Nicholas Godley – strength compared with steel Kevlar – e coli genetically modified to produce silk University of Wyoming / Aquila peers at child silk workers – important silk-producing areas penny schools / Make a screen print / Silk – Si Ling-chi sericulture used for musical instruments fishing lines bowstrings paper currency – silk road – moth Bombyx mori – hypoallergenic resists mould fungus dust mites / Paws for thought – peace silk Eri / Win silkworm kit / Story Akbar’s Return by J. D. Chaney / Nurse Nancy – staying healthy in winter / Who told you that a dog year is the same as seven human years?
October 2012 – Earthquakes & volcanoes
Win Crafts4kids Rory’s Story Cubes game / Paws for thought hibernation / Wheelchair basketball / Aquila peers at Howard Carter Tutankhamun’s tomb – Egypt Thebes Luxor Lord Carnarvon Valley of the Kings / Floating plates Earth science – crust mantle magma lava tectonic plates San Andreas Fault – Alfred L. Wegener Continental Drift seismic waves seismometer Charles F. Richter tsunami Professor Kosuke Heki – volcanoes vents / Earthquakes volcanoes mythology forge of Vulcan Pele Poseidon Loki Namazu elephants – Ring of Fire Krakatoa Vesuvius Pompeii Alpide belt Edinburgh Snowdonia Northumberland Giant’s Causeway / Make lava lamp / Measuring pressure – pop balloon with finger and pin / Win Survive-o-pedia book / Trouble Brewing story by Robyn Bailes / Results of Finish the Story competition / Who told you that hair and nails keep growing after death?
September 2012 – Stone Age people
Win The Pirates! in an Adventure with Scientists DVD / Disappearance of large animals – pleistocene megafauna Creswell Crags / Tree-dwelling ancestors – swivelling wrists opposable thumbs binocular vision depth perception / Make decorated pebbles and stones / Stone Age people – homo sapiens homo heidelbergensis Neanderthals microliths Mesolithic Neolithic Star Carr BC before Christ BCE before common era Bronze Age Orkney / Wordworm et Henri – first French words / Paws for thought – Scottish wildcat kittens Merida Brave Highland Wildlife Park / Just think – do I have a choice? Determinism Scientific determinism / History of counting – base ten base twelve / Win Articulate! for Kids boardgame / Sharing the ‘Good’ of Mr Bones story by Mary E. Rosambeau / Who told you that goldfish have 3-second memory?
July/August 2012 – The Wild West/Outdoor fun
Win Bumper Book of Crafty Activities / Music – Rockhopper Songbook Tristan Song Project Tony Triggs Tristan da Cunha volcano 1961 AQUILA song project / National Children’s Orchestra of Great Britain / Diary of Anne Frank – life in secret annexe death in Bergen-Belsen / Big cats wild in Britain – over 1,000 sightings a year / A Shed Load of Trouble story part 2 by Jeannette Ayton / Wild West – gold rush pony express telegraph transcontinental railroad cowboys Colt revolver Buffalo Bill Annie Oakley Butch Cassidy Sundance Kid Billy the Kid Jesse James – Native Americans General George Custer Sitting Bull Crazy Horse Battle of Little Bighorn / Make Cowboy Party – sheriff badge silver spurs cactus juice moustache biscuits bale-of-hay pinata torch-lit campfire / Holiday reading / Win books and framed picture in Finish the Story competition Kieran Larwood / Who told you that Pirates made people walk the plank? / Great Outdoors – get in touch with nature – play is good for social skills – 50 things to do before you’re 11¾ / Bubbles – how bubble is made – different shapes – bubble mix recipe giant bubbles / Pond dipping / Make tin can stilts / Wild food foraging berries fruit nuts fungi / Paws for thought bug hunting / British waterways – Canal and River Trust – history Thomas Telford James Brindley / Wordworm’s summer crossword / Bikes and biking – 23 million in UK – gears freewheel ratchet pawls fixed wheel ball-bearings brakes – road safety check / Maths impossible golf and infinite series / A Lesson from Phoebe story by Noreen Wainwright / Leaving Primary for Secondary school / Win framed print of your choice from Bridgman Art on Demand / Who told you that giraffes can’t lie down so they sleep standing up?
June 2012 – The Sun
Win 100 People Who Made History book / A year in the life of a bottlenose dolphin – Moray Firth Cardigan Bay Tursiops truncatus Sea Watch Foundation / Light energy – leaves as solar panels chlorophyll photosynthesis oxygen glucose chemical energy – experiment with Canadian pondweed / Make stained-glass window pictures / Sun – ancient Sun worship Aztecs Egyptians Greeks Romans – seasons Earth’s axis Tropic of Cancer – how the Sun was formed nuclear fusion sunspots coronal mass ejections CMEs Sun’s magnetic pole reverses aurorae / How far away is the Sun? Astronomical unit AU Aristarchus Pythagoras / Just think about whether science has disproved religion – science is about how the world works – religion is about why the world is here and meaning of life / Paws for thought – caring for pets in summer / Holiday tips from Nurse Nancy – guide to safety beach flags / A Shed Load of Trouble story part 1 by Jeannette Ayton / Who told you that Lady Godiva rode naked through the streets of Coventry?
May 2012 – The Royal Family
Win Wildcat & Dinohistoria card games / The Crown Jewels – Regalia crowns diamond refraction dispersion chemical structure Cullinan emeralds sapphires rubies / Royal family tree Hanover Saxe-Coburg & Gotha Windsor genealogy your family tree / Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme / Topic – European blood Coronation Crown Jewels lost stolen Parliament / Meet artist 10-year-old Kieron Williamson / Make bunting / Union Jack or Union Flag – correct construction / A Week in the life of an Eco-hero story by Kristin Martin / Paws for thought – big cats / Who told you that Marie Antoinette was the first person to use the phrase ‘Let them eat cake’?
April 2012 – Spain
Win tickets to Oliver! / Pilgrim’s Way Santiago de Compostela – St James Patron Saint of Spain pilgrim passport certificate / Chillies capsicum Scoville scale endorphins ginger zingerone – grow a chilli plant – chilli festivals / Spanish football national squad Barcelona Real Madrid / Make roasted vegetables with potatoes and spicy dip / Win Kids Cook the World cookbook / AQUILA readers living in Spain / The ‘Bright and Shining’ Solution story by Conita Espinoza / Paws for thought – keeping rabbits / Who told you that bulls get angry at the colour red?
March 2012 – Grow your own
Win Ready, Steady, Grow! book / Tutti-Frutti 5-a-day – why fruit and vegetables are important scurvy vitamin C potassium antioxidants free radicals guinea pigs banana smoothie / Flirtatious flowers gametes pollen nectary stamens anthers filaments carpel stigma ovary seeds hermaphrodite / Make dalek kitchen compost bin / How to grow your own tomatoes beans peas fruit flowers / Pepe considers chickens – how to choose house feed – protection egg-laying sickness / Just think about the colour blue synesthesia / Aquila peers at Titanic April 1912 White Star Cunard Harland & Wolff 1,517 drowned / Case of the Kidnapped Cat story part 2 by Angela Shepherd / Who told you that brown eggs are better for you than white?
February 2012 – Great apes
Win Arrietty DVDs / Computer games and your amazing brain – empathy mirror neurons / Orang pendek – Sumatra Richard Freeman Centre for Fortean Zoology Abominable Snowman gigantopithecus Pongo – new animals discovered bosvai arakan 2-metre fruit-eating monitor lizard sneezing snub-nosed monkey / Make a cheeky chimp mask / Great apes gorillas chimpanzees orangutans humans bonobos tail-less primates list of similarities between great apes and humans / Teeth – dental check-up cleaning / Win Real Reads Dickens books / Life of Charles Dickens Portsmouth Chatham Catherine Hogarth / Case of the Kidnapped Cat story part one by Angela Shepherd / Who told you that Inuit people have 100 words for snow?
January 2012 – The London Olympics
Win DK Children’s Book of Sport / Science of energy – muscles ATP ADP creatine phosphate glycolysis glycogen glucose lactic acid oxygen debt aerobic respiration fat hitting the wall / Make Olympic rings picture frame / Olympic Torch – 8,000 carriers 70-day relay 18th May to 27th July – Temple of Hera Olympia Panathenaiko Athens – torch designs – Austerity Games 1948 – Edward Barber Jay Osgerby designers 2012 – cauldron / How was London chosen? Host bids – venues Stratford NE London Olympic Village Zones / London 1948 Empire Stadium Wembley King George VI accommodation Emil Zatopek Fanny Blankers-Koen Flying Housewife Maureen Gardner / Wordworm’s Olympic crossword / Hallsands story by Caroline Butterwick / Paws for thought – Colchester Zoo cheetahs / Who told you that Cinderella wore glass slippers?
December 2011 – Christmas Past and Present
Win Smencils / Could you survive unplugged? Gerodimos Bournemouth University – life without laptops mobiles ipods dvds / Report on the ATE superweek 2011 / Think about The Happiness Machine / Win AudioGO Vintage BBC Pantomime CDs / Aquila peers at first Christmas cards – scraps Henry Cole John Calcott Horsley / Make Christmas garland / Topic William I Richard II Puritans Charles II Victorian Christmas First World War First royal Christmas message BBC George V / The Missing Piece story by Jacqueline Banerjee / Paws for thought – Penguins at Drusillas Zoo
November 2011 – The Moon
Win Meccano Multi-Model set / Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year / Last man on the moon Apollo 11 Apollo 17 Luna 2 maria Late Heavy Bombardment Apollo 8 Neil Armstrong LRV Lunar Roving Vehicle Moon Buggy Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter LRO two moons? / Make bubble-powered rocket / Moon myths worldwide – Ancient Greek moon myths – phases gravity tides / Lunar Society of Birmingham – famous members Erasmus Darwin Joseph Priestley Josiah Wedgwood James Watt Matthew Boulton – Dissenters – French Revolution Bastille / New B Watch It story by Maureen Robson / Timekeeping and calendars – lunar month solar year 30 days hath September leap years / Wordgames Last and First – Teacup – Who am I? – I went into town / Win Horrible History theatre tickets
October 2011 – Parasites
Win Practical Joke Soap / Aquila peers at the Jarrow Crusade march – unemployment Palmers shipyard Ellen Wilkinson MP Red Ellen Paddy labrador Stanley Baldwin / Make zombie bug mobile / Viruses – filterable viruses virion outer shell protein inner core dna/rna – virus infection cycle diagram – bacteriophage cell lysis – poliomyelitis rabies foot and mouth disease influenza smallpox – Edward Jenner 1796 cowpox Louis Pasteur 1885 – plant viruses fossil viruses computer viruses Elk Cloner 1981 / Lice nits roundworm tapeworm fleas mosquitoes mites ticks bed bugs – cleaner wrasse kangaroos / Failure start of something big – Woody Allen Beethoven Alexander Graham Bell Gabrielle Coco Chanel Winston Churchill Daniel Defoe Walt Disney Clint Eastwood Albert Einstein Henry Ford J K Rowling Laurence Olivier / Jasper the Lazy Ghost story by Andrew Griffiths / Paws for thought – wildlife in autumn – insects bonfires hedgehogs fireworks birds deer bats seals
September 2011 – Greek myths and legends
Win All New Compendium of Cardmaking Techniques book / Meet author Rick Riordan / Win complete set of Rick Riordan books / Maths factorials – written with ! multiply by all numbers less than it, so 5! = 5x4x3x2x1 = 120 / Archimedes density mass levers Archimedes screw Antikythera mechanism for astronomical calculations – Democritus atomic theory – scientific words derived from Greek / Greek heroes gods monsters – Iliad Argonautica Odyssey Cyclops Medusa Odysseus Trojan war Homer Persephone Demeter Hades Arachne Narcissus / Make Trojan Horse secrets box / Wordworm’s Greek nouns / Think about why murder is wrong / Pandora’s Box story by Elizabeth Knight
July/August 2011 – Cats and Dogs/Robin Hood
Aquila peers at Berlin Wall / Why you should not drink seawater – desalination experiment / Pinhole camera – how to make / Astra – life in universe 50 years of SETI Frank Drake exoplanets / Time’s Wing’d Chariot story by Anthony Gillam / Think about the willing breakfast – Natural Law Theorists / Win A Year Without Autumn by Liz Kessler / Working dogs – assistance rescue police sniffer sheep Maremma Tatra Pyrenees – Italian helicopter dogs Ferruccio Pilenga Newfoundland Golden Retriever – reading dogs BARKS Mary Ellen Schneider / Caring for pets in summer / Make pet mats / Domestic dogs Grey wolf breeding – domestic cats African wildcat controlling rats black plague flea / Robin Hood and his merry men – Little John Maid Marian Friar Tuck Will Scarlett Sherwood Forest / Aquila peers at King Richard I and Prince John – Lionheart crusades Lackland Softsword Pipe Rolls / Make Robin Hood finger puppets / Archery fletchings William Tell Ancient Scorton Arrow – Plantagenet Society / Harry and the Missing Kipper story by Jackie Banerjee / Win Bracelet of Bones by Kevin Crossley-Holland / Win Wildlife Trusts New Holland Field Guides
June 2011 – Modern Art
Win Tate Art in a Box activity cards set / Art is good for you – expressing feelings healing / Make pop art picture / Paint and pigments – cochineal indigo bone ivory alizarin madder sepia lapis lazuli orpiment arsenic trisulphide As2S3 lead chromate carbonate titanium dioxide – acrylic emulsion of polymethylmethacrylate in water – colour experiment to unmix paint / Topic impressionism fauves cubism surrealism abstract Picasso – visit a gallery / Fractals Mandelbrot Julia set Seirpinski triangle / Crazy Ball – fast fun training for other sports / Cave of Whispers story by Greg Acheson / Paws for thought – Rodents + tips on guinea pigs / Win Take Me Home book
May 2011 – The River Nile
Win A Time Traveller’s Field Notes and Observations of Ancient Egypt book / Flintoff Academy cricket / Seeds – an ideal food – rice maize wheat – wheat in Egypt Ramesses III / Make papyrus from brown paper / Topic White Nile Lake Victoria Uganda – Blue Nile Lake Tana Ethiopia – animals hippos crocodiles birds – floods Pharaohs pyramids dams / The number Pi – known by Egyptians 225BC – Archimedes area of circle – pendulums magnets planets length of Nile / Win Khet laser strategy board game / Think about lifeboat dilemma – kill one to save others? Mignonette Capt Thomas Dudley – Stephens Brooks Parker – Kantians Utilitarians / Info on AQUILA ATE eco-venture Superweek 11-18 Aug 2011 / Jamala’s Lion story by J. D. Chaney
April 2011 – Gold
Win RSPB nest box and fluffy birds / Meet Professor Robert Winston / Win Science Experiments book / Make Aztec wall hanging / Panning Californian gold rush 1849 forty-niners – pure gold 24 carat hallmarks Archimedes Principle – chemistry unreactive metal alchemy / Gold cultural symbols gold leaf Au E175 – Golden Fleece Mali Emperor Mansa Musa / Aquila peers at gold rush Skookum Jim Rabbit Creek Klondike prospectors Yukon animals Hanover Zoo / Sputnik Laika 1961 Yuri Gagarin 89-minute orbit Vostok Alan Shepard John Glenn / The Ishtar Gate story by Austin Hackney / Paws for thought – guinea pigs
March 2011 – Japan
Win First 1000 Words in Japanese book / Eden Project – biomes – Win family tickets / Dolls festival Hina-Matsuri – Sun goddess Amaterasu Golden Week carp streamers Children’s Day – counting to 12 in Japanese / Make kirigami paper cutting / AQUILA readers in Japan – hiragana alphabet kanji characters / Life in elementary school – timetable menu cleaning extra-curricular earthquake drill – Japanese school London / Aquila peers at Samurai weapons training code of conduct – Miyamoto Musashi – Tomoe Gozen / Secret of a Foggy Canal story by Pauline Hill
February 2011 – Record Breakers
Win History Heroes card game / Red Nose Day (18 March 2011) Comic Relief Uganda War Child fundraising ideas / Cryptozoology Loch Ness Monster Bigfoot El Chupacabra Beast of Gevaudan 1764 Pongo / Make sand pictures / Guinness Book of Records Sir Hugh Beaver 1954 Chris Chataway Ross Norris McWhirter Lego mosaic / Longest in the world – hair cucumber bubblechain snake in captivity conga on ice rideable surfboard beard apple peel sofa hotdog sci-fi tv show paint by numbers spinning basketball on nose reef / Win Animal Records book from NHM / Story Carla and the Cuddlecrunchie part 2 by Elizabeth Kay / Paws for thought introducing Pepe – puppies
December 2010/January 2011 – Choirs and singing/Winter wildlife
AQUILA Christmas Fun trivia quiz / Topic choirs & singing – harmony choral chant – how voices work conductor choirs Pope Gregory Benedict Biscop / What is sound? Speed of sound Mach 1 Ernest Mach sound waves shock wave middle C frequency Hertz recording vinyl CD compression mp3 MIDI sequencing / Meet author Lauren St John / Win The White Giraffe series + Deadman’s Cove books / What is respect? – consideration care rules / Win Daler Rowney Graduate Acrylic Table Easel Set / Just think about where right and wrong come from – God Plato Socrates Euthyphro relativism / Story Jade’s Dream part 2 by Kay Woods / Wordworm’s Christmas wildlife crossword and wordsearch / Topic winter garden wildlife – bonfires logpiles ponds amphibians mammals invertebrates birds / Make Christmas choristers / Make gift bags and tags – animal silhouettes – download font / Watching winter wildlife – birds mammals invertebrates – links to wildlife wildfowl organizations / Review of ATE AQUILA Superweek 2010 / Win What on Earth Wallbook + reader offer / Make Christmas treats – biscuits xmas pud cakes / Win Justin Thyme book / Story Carla and the Cuddlecrunchie part 1 by Elizabeth Kay
November 2010 – Wind and storms
Win 4 family tickets to Horrible Histories show / Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year / Measuring weather – met office pressure Newtons bar millibars isobars barometer aneroid barograph thermometers – frost fairs on Thames – anemometer rain gauge humidity Stevenson Screen helium balloons weather satellites geostationary / Make anemometer / Wind speed Sir Francis Beaufort Hurricane Katrina Great Hurricane 1780 Bhola Cyclone Great Storm 1987 Jet streams / How to beat bad news / Win Book of Bones by Natasha Narayan / Just think – will the sun rise tomorrow? David Hume empiricist / Jade’s Dream story part 1 by Kay Woods
October 2010 – Spiders
Win set of Alex Rider books by Anthony Horowitz / Spiders in space – orb weaver spider living in space experiment by Aurora Hills Middle School Colorado / Spider that saved Scotland – Robert the Bruce Edward I Hammer of the Scots John Red Comyn John Balliol William Wallace Methven Bannockburn / Make bouncing spiders / Spider fossils Greek Princess Arachne West African and Caribbean Anansi Egyptian Neith – eight eyes blue blood / Jewel of Muscat 9th-century trading ship Indonesia – reconstructed sailed Oman to Singapore – shipworms kamal string Experiential Maritime Museum Sentosa Resort World / Haunted Rock story by Austin Hackney / Fun with shapes – topology London Underground map Mobius strip / Win Stargazers’ Almanac 2011
September 2010 – Cavaliers and Roundheads
Win Royal Mail Smilers personalised stamp sets / Battle re-enactment The Sealed Knot / Make Cavalier and Roundhead hats / Weapons and armour of the English Civil War – archers steel body armour musket matchlock flintlock pikemen bayonet rifle rifling breech-loading Kevlar / Civil War 1642 – 1651 Charles I Charles II Divine Right Queen Henrietta Maria Prince Rupert Edgehill Boye poodle Oliver Cromwell Lord Protector / Equality / School Clown story part 2 by Sophia Foreman / Win What Goes On In My Head book
July/August 2010 – Seals and sea lions/Survival skills
Farne Islands Scilly Lundy Pembroke Chanonry Point Moray Firth bottlenose dolphins Orkneys Donna Nook Lincolnshire Blakeney Point Norfolk – sanctuaries National Seal Sanctuary Helston Cornwall Mablethorpe Pier 39 San Francisco – seal sea lion different ears flippers / Stranded seals New Jersey / Walrus manatees sirens baby seal in Kent garden / Make jewellery dinosaur tooth necklace – shell pendant / Meet author Michelle Paver / Win Chronicles of Ancient Darkness book set / Black Agnes story by Rosemary Francis / How to win noughts and crosses – game theory optimal strategy / Survival skills board game / Surviving the cold – frostbite hypothermia insulation hollow hair hi-tech clothing blubber / Make semaphore flags / Win Hexjibber colouring and activity book / Florence Nightingale angel of Crimea Lady with the Lamp Mary Seacole / Exmoor Ponies characteristics Domesday Book South Downs / Win Schleich pony models / Meet entomologist Dr George Beccaloni curator of orthopteroid insects at Natural History Museum / Win Big Bugs book / School Clown story part 1 by Sophia Foreman
June 2010 – Italy
Win Altair Design colouring pad / Football in Italy – Azzurri golden shoe / Italian scientists – Galileo acceleration due to gravity water clock Cassini distance between Earth and Mars Galvani effect of electricity on nerves and muscles galvanisation Volta battery unit of electrical potential volt Fermi nuclear pile fermions Fermilab top quark discovered 1995 / Make ice cream gelato / AQUILA readers in Italy – food hobbies school etc / Remember Me story by Frances Clamp / Parliamo italiano – let’s talk Italian / Win Italian for Beginners book / History of tennis – Egyptian tomb carvings royal or real tennis origin of name vulcanized rubber ball
May 2010 – Science fiction
100 years of Girl Guides – contribution to First World War effort Agnes Baden-Powell Rosebuds Olave B-P Thinking Day Girlguiding UK / Space travel – Jules Verne From The Earth To The Moon H. G. Wells First Men In The Moon Proxima Centauri 4 light years away aliens Star Trek SciFi comedy / Meet author Keith Mansfield – Win Star Blaze book / Time travel Robota drudgery robots biology miniaturisation / Learn to draw a Mars robot – Win Draw Sci Fi book plus DalerRowney Sketchbook and Pastel Pencil tin / Just think about the Mona Lisa – is beauty subjective or objective? Aesthetics Immanuel Kant Critique of Judgement / The Dreamsavers story part 2 by Fiona Veitch Smith
April 2010 – Mosaic
Win A Necklace of Raindrops book / Emotional intelligence – positive thinking positive affirmations – self-esteem – limiting beliefs – building confidence – relaxation meditation / Wall and rock climbing – belaying bouldering figure-of-eight knot smearing matching bridging / Fishbourne Roman Palace – hypocaust cupid and dolphin mosaic Cogidubnus leader of Atrebates Vespasian / Mosaic topic – Mesopotamia 1500BC Romans Carthage Tunisia tesserae Villa Romana del Casale Sicily – digital mosaic / Make eggshell mosaic easter card / Meet the author Nick Arnold / Win tickets to Horrible Science show / Cut cake fairly / The Dreamsavers story part 1 by Fiona Veitch Smith / AQUILA ATE Superweek Adventure in August 2010
March 2010 – Dinosaurs
Win Now You Know About fun DVDs / Marine monsters – Predator X pliosaur Kronosaurus Liopleurodon Ichthyosaurs Plesiosaurs Mauisaurus Polycotylidae Trinacromerum Mosasaurs aigalosaurs Hesperornis Tylosaurus Hainosaurus Mesosaurs – mosasaur fossil Maastricht 1780 – Mary Anning / Dinosaur hunt – dinosaur skin dung coprolite footprints – museums websites clubs for enthusiasts Geological Society – Rockwatch / Make a dinosaur shoebox diorama Louis Daguerre 1822 / Dinosaur topic – 1824 William Buckland Megalosaurus 1825 Dr Gideon Mantell Iguanadon 1833 Hylaeosaurus 1842 Sir Richard Owen invented name ‘dinosaurs’ – Othniel Charles Marsh Edward Drinker Cope ‘bone wars’ Allosaurus Triceratops 1923 George Olsen first complete eggs and nests in Gobi Desert – 2006 Morocco skull fragments Spinosaurus 2009 China Darwinopterus – Pterosaurs – supercontinent Pangaea / Frederic Chopin 1810-1849 Polonaise in G minor – The Revolutionary – Fantaisie Impromptu – The Raindrop – The Minute Waltz / Curse of the Cairo Cat story part 3 by Dan Metcalf / Surf-it dinosaur websites / Win Natural History Museum Dinosaurs book
February 2010 – The Winter Olympics
Win Running Wild book / Star gazing – Stargazers’ Almanac special offer / Grizzly bears in Canada – British Columbia hibernation / 10th Winter Paralympics Vancouver – Dr Ludwig Guttmann Stoke Mandeville Hospital Ornskoldsvik Royal Canadian Mint 17 new coins / Make felted woollen mittens / 21st Winter Olympics Vancouver Miga Quatchi Sumi Winter Olympics quiz / Winter sports – snowboarding skiing / Curse of the Cairo Cat story part 2 by Dan Metcalf / Win digital camera and year’s subscription Animal competition
December 2009/January 2010 – Charles Dickens/The Nobel Prize
Win Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince 2xDVD set / ATE AQUILA Superweek reviewed / Results of Finish the Story – Ben Myers / Make an ‘Old Curiosity Shop’ storage box / Mudlarks and Guttersnipes – workhouses baby farms industrial schools / Dickens – quiz and life of / Make Christmas wreath and table decoration / Win book Green Fingers and Muddy Boots / Christmas crossword / Win Dolphin wall clock / Offside Rule story by Patsy Collins / Nobel Prize – history – famous winners – laureates / Life of Marie Curie (Sklodowska) – uranium rays Henri Becquerel pitchblende polonium radium / X-rays – Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen radiographs photons / Vaccines and viruses – swine flu pandemic – Asian flu Hong Kong flu – treatments / Rudyard Kipling / The power of books and literature – role models – comfort – other cultures – being aware of dangers / Family trees / Win book Who Am I? Family Tree Explorer / Curse of the Cairo Cat story part 1 by Dan Metcalf
November 2009 – Great Inventions
Win DK Ask Me Anything book / Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year / Michael Faraday – electrolysis benzene liquefying chlorine gas electricity Øersted magnetism electric motors transformers power stations Royal Institution Christmas Lectures for Young People Sandemanian (Church of Scotland) / Make rolling robots from deodorant bottles / Favourite great inventions – telescope Lipperhey Janssen abacus flushing toilet spectacles electricity spiked running shoes screw-capped paints John Rand printing press Gutenburg Biro mouse Engelbart tin can post-it note internet / Charles Darwin On The Origin Of Species 1859 / Story Paper Trail part 2 by Tim Morgan / 18th AQUILA Treasure Hunt part 2 to win a Pirate Treasure Chest / Win COLORS board game / Just Think Friendship
October 2009 – Bats
Win Tickets to see George’s Marvellous Medicine / Life of Edgar Allan Poe / Lucky charms around the world – four-leaf clover – rabbit’s foot – horseshoe – bats – wishbone – dreamcatcher / Why do we need saliva? – healing – toxic / Bats – horseshoe noctule serotine daubenton long-eared pipistrelle – what to do if you find a bat / Win Caveman boardgame – Matt Hall tells how he invented the game / 18th AQUILA Treasure Hunt part 1 / Win Royal Institution Christmas Lecture tickets / Paper Trail story part 1 by Tim Morgan
September 2009 – The Babylonians
Win Rainbow Maker kit / Cut the carbon quiz – are you an eco-hero or an eco-disaster? / Cuneiform numbers – astrological ephemerides / Make a Babylonian calendar – birthday card – keyring / Babylonian new year – Marduk Esagila Processional Way Ishtar Gate – ziggurat Etemenanki – Hanging Gardens / Wordworm et Henri have fun with French – words similar to English – endings -tion -ent -ant -ence -able / Dinner story by Greg Acheson / Calculata’s magic squares – magic constant / Win Bad Tuesdays books by Benjamin Myers in Finish the story competition
July/August 2009 – Legend of King Arthur/Paper
Summer of the International Year of Astronomy – asteroids Mars splashes on struts of lander Phoenix International Space Station total solar eclipse Perseid meteor shower / Meet author Linda Newbery / Win book The Sandfather / Should animals be used for testing – cosmetics toiletries vivisection household cleaning products alternative tests Humane Cosmetics Standard HCS Leaping Bunny / Secret messages – codes cryptography / Win RSPB fluffy birds / Make Camelot Desk Tidy / In search of King Arthur – Tintagel Cadbury Castle Winchester Round Table Stonehenge Merlin Glastonbury Abbey Avalon Colchester Dozmary Pool Excalibur Bodmin Moor Bolventor Ruthin Llyn Dinas Snowdon Tryfan Bardsey Island / Story Thomas in Time part two by Valerie Thame / The Legend of King Arthur topic boardgame – Uther Pendragon Tintagel Kay Lancelot Guinevere Mordred Holy Grail Jesus Last Supper Joseph of Arimathea Battle of Mount Badon Camelot King Leodegrance Cameliard Merlin Excalibur magic scabbard Brittany Battle of Camlann Morgan le Fay Bedivere Avalon / Recommended stories about Arthur – King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table [Green, Williams] – Corbenic – Here Lies Arthur – Dark is Rising – Seeing Stone – Sword in the Stone / Win book Curious Mind of Young darwin / Cut the carbon – Rubbish – reduce reuse recycle / Twenty20 Cricket – ace manoeuvres moon ball front foot flick slower-ball bouncer reverse slog or switch-hit – advice from Rupert Kitzinger batting bowling fielding – star players Virender Sehwag Shahid Afridi Albie Morkel Chris Gayle Andrew Flintoff Jesse Ryder / Paper making through the centuries papyrus textile rags China cellulose fibre paper sizes / Paper chain from forest to high street – Finnish paper mill / Origami – fold a paper crane – story of Sadako Sasaki / Living Latin words and roots / Story A Tangle of Net by Jennifer Maruno / Win Paper making kit
June 2009 – Mexico
Win Live Butterfly Garden / Animals of Mexico – 65,000 species variety of climates ecosystems mammals reptiles snakes birds biodiversity megadiverse countries / Mexican recipes – hot chocolate – molette – cat’s tongues / Science of chocolate xocolatl bitter water how chocolate is made – is it good for you? – theobromine and animals – experiment to discover melting temperature / Make a Talavera Mexican-style serving platter (from strips of paper and pva glue) / Just think – Does democracy matter? – Plato Hobbes Existentialists / Cut carbon – green gardening / Thomas in Time story part 1 by Valerie Thame / Win Dognapped plus two other Amy Carter mystery books by Karen King
May 2009 – Pottery
Win Seven Sorcerers book plus six other books / Pets are good for you! – Human animal bond – decrease stress – therapy dogs / White gold story of porcelain – ceramic secret formula Elector of Saxony King of Poland Augustus the Strong Meissen Samuel Stoltzel Claudius du Paquier – Chinese exports 17th century / Make Kokeshi clay dolls / Pottery – archaeology coil pot Gravettian figurines Grimstone-Lyles Hill firing glazes Raku Mesopotamia throwing pots / Plasticity of clay terracotta kaolin China clay Josiah Spode Staffordshire Pyrometric cones Blue and white china Thomas Minton Willow pattern The Potteries maker’s marks / Tea with Granny story part 2 by Lisa Robbins / How green is your pet? Choosing a pet – responsible ownership / Surf-it pottery websites / Win Pirate’s Chest and Spy Briefcase plus manuals
April 2009 – Spring
Win Powered Hovercraft kit / Woodland in winter and spring – coppice – Wild about woods day – ancient woodland / Early birds early springs – adapting to climate change – phenology – Woodland Trust Nature’s Calendar / Make a decorated cake / Spring – vernal equinox 23.4deg tilt BST 1916 Easter Egyptian sphinx rabbit hare painted eggs Eostre Ostern Passover Paques Pasqua Pascua Lent Mardi Gras Shrove Tuesday Ash Wednesday Fasching Fastnacht Rose Monday Carnival carne vale Haru Matsuri Purim Nowruz Holi / Greek words chloros photo / Tea with Granny story part 1 by Lisa Robbins / Be a young reviewer – classical music – Bachtrack / Win Mummy Snatchers of Memphis book plus six other books
March 2009 – Shapes
Win The Magic Thief and six other books / Light pollution – star parties – measure the sky’s darkness – International Dark Sky Association / Kumari – living goddess Kathmandu Nepal Durga / Make Chinese tangram game / The golden ratio length divided by width = 1.618034 – tessellation – M. C. Escher / Shapeshifters in myth, folklore, science fiction and fantasy – Skrulls Galligantua Fafnir Leszy Naga Madame White Snake huli jing – Welsh and Greek/Roman mythology / World Book Day – Meet author Joseph Delaney / Win first five Spook books / Just think – triangles – Rationalists Empiricists / The Invisible Man story by Nicky Ball / Win Tetris cube
February 2009 – The Arctic Circle
Win book A Really Short History of Nearly Everything / The Empty Den – future for polar bears – International Leadership Camp Hudson Bay ESA satellite Envisat / Britain’s quest for north-west passage – Martin Frobisher John Davis Henry Hudson Edward Parry John Franklin Leopold McClintock Robert McClure Roald Amundsen / Make a snow globe / Lands of the midnight sun – what defines the Arctic Circle – solstices – northern lights aurora borealis – arctic peoples / Deafness – hearing loss cochlear implant British sign language / Chinese new year – remembering associated animals – thinkalink / Cut carbon shopping choices – use toaster match pan to hob / Darren the dragon story part two by Elizabeth Kay / Win Yoga Planet illustrated cards
January 2009 – Genes and DNA [We arenow dropping the use of Volume and Issue Number]
Win family tickets to stage show ‘Why the Whales Came’ / Cut carbon mobile phones – exercise / Robert Burns Night 25th January 250 anniversary / Johannes Kepler – Mysterium Cosmographicum – Astronomia Nova – sight optics birth year of Christ – supernova – Kepler Mission 4th March 2009 / Budongo Trail Edinburgh Zoo chimpanzees Uganda / Deoxyribonucleic Acid polymer monomers double helix inheritance chromosomes dna fingerprinting forensics – science of Jurassic Park / Make fingerprint people / Just think – is ‘teleporting’ possible? – Descartes Wittgenstein / Darren the dragon story part one by Elizabeth Kay / Win Marrakech boardgame
December 2008 – Vol XV 7 – Magic
Win Hocus Pocus book by making up a magic word / Young Magicians Club Dominic Wood Secrets magazine workshops auction – International Brotherhood of Magicians British Ring J-Day / Science magic – mini explosion – bones in a knot – egg in bottle – magic ruler – eggs behaving badly – ice cube trick – static electricity / Make a magic wand and wallet – move £5 note trick / Topic – Houdini 1874-1926 – Indian rope trick disappearing elephant Magic Circle simple card trick / Free Gifts story by Alice Nuttall / Surf it magic sites / Cut carbon computer tips / Win Superball Hyperlauncher by science quiz
November 2008 – Vol XV 6 – Gravity
Win Artemis Fowl and the Time Paradox / Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2008 / Astra looks at gravity – Isaac Newton Johannes Kepler Albert Einstein – precessional orbits – gravitational lensing effect – black holes dark matter Whirlpool galaxy M51 / Make ‘apple darts’ game / Brainfeeders mention tetrahedral numbers – solutions mention triangular numbers / Gravity topic – Galileo Apollo 15 David Scott hammer-feather Isaac Newton 1 newton = force of apple pushing on hand – tides weather gravity compared with magnet / Play snooker / Secrets story part 2 by Jean Harrowven / 17th Great AQUILA Treasure Hunt pt 2 crossword / Cut carbon – wear sweater draw curtains draughtproofing hot water bottle etc
October 2008 – Vol XV 5 – Autumn
Win Great Explorers book / The history of powered flight – Samuel Franklin Cody Orville and Wilbur Wright Alberto Santos-Dumont Short brothers Louis Bleriot John Theodore Cuthbert Moore-Brabazon Charles Rolls John Alcock Arthur Whitten Brown – European air travel – transatlantic flights – Sir Frank Whittle – Amelia Earhart / Yummy blood – bloodsuckers mosquitoes ticks flies fleas mites headlice lampreys vampire bats oxpecker proboscis malaria tsetse fly sleeping sickness leeches – reattaching a boy’s ear – Masaai – black pudding drisheen boudin noir morcilla blutwurst / Cut carbon – car sharing – packed lunch / Autumn – Keats equinox Fall Thanksgiving Harvest Sukkot Tabernacles sukkah Mehr Samhain All Hallows Bonfire bonefire / Make painting pots and planting bulbs for spring / 17th Great AQUILA Treasure Hunt – match book title to description / Maths networks – Konigsberg bridge – nodes degrees / Secrets story part 1 by Jean Harrowven
September 2008 – Vol XV 4 – World War I
Win tickets to Roald Dahl Museum and books / Kilve Court Somerset / Fritz and Clara Haber Haber-Bosch process development of chemical weapons explosives poisonous chlorine gas / Make a biplane / The Great War / Poppy Day Royal British Legion In Flanders Fields John McCrae / Just think… doing bad things to get good results Utilitarian Kantian philosophy Just War theory / Three Pots for Harry story by Jackie Banerjee / Win Archie’s War book
July/August 2008 – Vol XV 2/3 – Birds of prey/The coast of Britain
Olympics – Beijing / Make an owl iPod case / Birds of prey – falcons merlins road raptors hawks eagles ospreys honey buzzards / Summer crossword / Just think about what a game is / Win Roman Mysteries DVD / EJF Environmental Justice Foundation – fair trade cotton / Make a printed t-shirt – painted t-shirt / Win GloSlime Factory / Murder in the Deep story part 2 by Fiona Veitch Smith / Coast of Britain – how many islands? Forth bridges Tyneside Whitby Orford Ness Thames Estuary Martello Towers Jurassic Coast Land’s End Pendine Sands Crosby Beach Whales and dolphins Grey seals / Tides spring and neap / Surfing / Lighthouses – trenails Skerryvore Foghorns Fresnel lens DGPS Differential Global Position System / Grace Darling / The Shoemaker’s Son story by Anne Forsyth / Tidal islands St Michael’s Mount Lindisfarne Hilbre Burgh Dragon’s Head / Make ice creams by Sam Stern / Win ‘Giants’ book
June 2008 – Vol XV 1 – Glass
Win Cosmic Rocket or Drinks Can Robug kit / Buddhist boy monks in Sikkim India – gompa / What is glass – how is glass made – silica soda lime silicon dioxide sodium carbonate calcium carbonate – not a true solid – refraction – coloured glass – optical fibres / Victorian child glass workers – Pilkingtons schools / Early glass – bull’s eyes – stained glass – bottles – recycling – laminated – toughened / Pierre de Fermat’s last theorem – prime numbers triangle square pentagonal numbers / Make marionettes / Win Puppet Theatre book / Murder in the Deep story part 1 by Fiona Veitch Smith
May 2008 – Vol XIV 12 – Museums
Win Dinosaur replica toys / Results of AQUILA Young Reporter Competition 2008 / Archaeology all around us – field shapes winding paths rabbit holes ploughed fields extensions maps – Portable Finds Officer / Meet museum curator Stephen Quirke – Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology / Brainfeeders – Egyptian heiroglyphics su doku / Topic – Great Library at Alexandria – Ashmolean – Louvre – unusual museums – Natural History Museum Walter Rothschild / Make fly in amber biscuits / Bad Dog story part 2 by Jennifer Casey / Win How to Avoid a Wombat’s Bum book of fascinating facts
April 2008 – Vol XIV 11 – Ireland
Win Pylos wooden game / Irish sports – hurling gaelic football / Geology of Ireland – Gondwana Iapetus Ocean shale Rheic Ocean trilobites the Burren Marble Arch Caves Giant’s Causeway drumlins erratics / Make noughts and crosses game / Ireland topic – emigration Irish flag Blarney stone Brian Boru Book of Kells Lough Neagh Finn MacCool Benandonner St Patrick Leprechauns Shamrock / Philosophy – think about the Mars Colony – how much should people be paid for what they do – John Rawls Karl Marx / Bad Dog story part 1 by Jennifer Casey / Surf-it – Irish websites / Win Animal Records book from Natural History Museum
March 2008 – Vol XIV 10 – Cartoons
Win RSPB Birdwatching Guide / Rescue air ambulances deMooy helicopters EMS HEMS Police helicopters skyshout / Extinction steller’s sea cow great auk thylacine baiji Lonesome George pinta giant tortoise bonobos giant panda southern white rhino WWF / More Manga draw a manga body – basic body shapes / Meet illustrator David Armitage / Make an Easter card / Andy’s Owl story by David Auger / Win hot air balloon ride in ‘design a pair of glasses’ competition
February 2008 – Vol XIV 9 – Native Americans
Win Know Your Brain book / Snowflakes – biggest – Shirenewton Gwent Fort Keough Montana – dendrites – how to catch and measure snowflakes / Tribal tongues – Native American languages – Navajo Sioux Narragansett Algonquian Plains Arawakan Cree – Lake Webster Massachusetts Chargoggagogg… – smoke signals / Life on a reservation – Lakota tribe – South Dakota – buffalo – bison – importance of 4 – medicine wheel – tepees teepees / Native American quiz / Make a desktop tepee / The Quest for Healing story as told by Philip Ardagh / Win Art & Craft Studio CD-ROM / Infinity – biggest number – origin of symbol – Hilbert’s Hotel
January 2008 – Vol XIV 8 – Time
Win tickets to Horrible Histories Live on Stage / Snowboarding / Make clocks from CDs – pirate clock – numbers clock / Time – distance of Earth’s orbit around Sun – microseconds – chronons – time zones – international date line – sundials water clocks candle clocks hour-glass sand-glass – pendulum Christian Huygens Holland 1656 – John Harrison 1759 marine chronometer – wristwatch 1880 – atomic clock – quartz clock 1928 – Gregorian and Julian calendars – Hebrew Jewish calendar 3761 BC – Chinese calendar 2637 BC – Hindu Indian calendar 79 AD – Islamic calendar 622 – Mayan calendar / Just think – Zhuangzi and the butterfly – Rene Descartes – how can you tell when you are dreaming? / Chinese Terracotta Army 1974 – Lintong – Qin Shihuangdi – First Emperor / Young Reporter Competition 2008 – Museums
December 2007 – Vol XIV 7 – Stars
Win Tantrix puzzle / Powerhouses of the universe – Eagle nebula – star eggs – protostars – nuclear fusion – Einstein’s equation E=mc2 – planetary nebula – cat’s eye – white dwarf – supernova – LMC Large Megellanic Cloud – ring of pearls – random walk / Make pinhole planetarium nightlight / Hanukkah – Dreidel – Menorah shamash servant candle – star biscuits / Stars – binoculars – western sky early December – eastern sky late December – Comet 17P/Holmes / Drawing stars – nets for tetrahedron octahedron icosahedron / Christmas crossword / Beast of Bodmin story by Sue Hodgkinson / Win Crafty Activities book
November 2007 – Vol XIV 6 – The human body
Win Horrible Science kits – Disgusting Digestion / Shell Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2007 / Circulation of the blood – William Harvey – blood cells – bone marrow – take your pulse – erythrocytes – leucocytes – thrombocytes – plasma / Make an eyeball nightlight / The human body – carbon iron fat ears Eustachian tube eyes tongue nails bladder skin sweat melanin hair stomach intestines teeth brain skeleton bones hyoid / The King’s Riddle story part 2 by Kathryn England / Bonfire food – pumpkin soup – traditional gingerbread – mulled apple juice / Treasure Hunt 2007 part 2
October 2007 – Vol XIV 5 – Friends
Win Michael Morpurgo book and anthology of poetry / Poisonous fungi – spores – puffball – death cap Amanita phalloides – destroying angel Amanita virosa – panther cap Amanita pantherina – devil’s boletus Boletus satanus – fly agaric Amanita muscaria – toadstool – mycotoxins / Religious Society of Friends – Quakers – George Fox – Justice Bennett – William Penn Pennsylvania – Cadburys Wedgwood Clarks Rowntree Frys Barclays Lloyds – Elizabeth Fry – Oxfam Amnesty International – SPICE simplicity peace integrity community equality / Friendship around the globe – Golden Tapestry – airmail – IPA International Police Association – Royal Commonwealth Society – Rotary Club – The Lions – Town twinning / Topic – making new friends – staying friends – what kind of friend are you quiz – books about friendship – friendship bracelets – pen friends / Make a codewheel – cipher wheel – Thomas Jefferson / Treasure Hunt 2007 part 1 / The King’s Riddle story part 1 by Kathryn England
September 2007 – Vol XIV 4 – Alexander the Great
Win – I Am Great Horse book / Is your school an Eco School? – Crossways School South Gloucester / Support your favourite team – Rugby Union World Cup / Make an Alexander the Great coin cast / Topic – Alexander 356-323 BC – Macedonia – Bucephalus – battle tactics – polygamy / Science – mosquitoes – how they find us – proboscis – anticoagulant – spreading diseases / Things That Go Bump In The Night story part 2 by Jackie Banerjee / Wordworm – battle words – words from Greek – prefixes / Win Stargazers’ Almanac 2008
July/August 2007 – Vol XIV 2/3 – Railway journeys / 20th-Century design
Cycle tracks – old railways – Beeching / Orient Express – Paris Giurgiu / Steam transport – James Watt – Richard Trevithick – Rocket – George and Robert Stephenson – coal – pistons – Mallard / Railway journeys – global passenger numbers – Maglev – Trans Siberian Railway – Bullet train shinkansen – Union Pacific Central Pacific – TGV train a grande vitesse – diesel TEP 80 – Talgo XXI – Seikan tunnel – Binhai Mass Transit Bridge No 1 – Tay Bridge – McGonagall poem / Make mosaic sundial – gnomon / Win RSPB Wildlife Explorer binoculars or fluffy bird / Wordworm et Henri vont en vacances / Stinky Socks story by Nicola Ball / Imaginary numbers – natural numbers – rational numbers – irrational numbers – complex numbers – fractal Mandelbrot set / Win Bad Spy’s Guide by Pete Johnson – finish story competition / Bubbles – bubble solution recipe – wands – cube-shaped bubble / Chernobyl – nuclear power – radioactivity / 20th-century design – mass production – transport and communications technology / Manga – Osamu Tezuka – Astro Boy – anime – Hayao Miyazaki / Win cycle helmet and goody bag / Summer crossword / Scouting 100th anniversary – Baden-Powell – Brownsea Island / Things That Go Bump In The Night story part one by Jackie Banerjee / UNESCO World Heritage Sites – Stonehenge / Win OUP Children’s Classics
June 2007 – Vol XIV 1 – Summertime
Win – KidzLabs Animation Praxinoscope or Pinhole Camera / Saturn in the summer / Fish for all – sustainable fishing – dwindling fish stocks – Marine Stewardship Council – the blue tick – overfishing – bycatch / Edward Elgar – 150th anniversary of his birth – Worcester – St George’s Roman Catholic Church organist – Alice Roberts / Summer – bank holidays – BST – solstice / Kebabs recipes – Win ‘Real Food Real Fast’ book by Sam Stern – teenage chef / Pythagoras – theorem – pure maths / Alice Pocket and the Great Fire of London story part 3 by Valerie Thame / Results of Young Reporter Competition 2007
May 2007 – Vol XIII 12 – The Impressionists
Win Oodles of doodles book / Dragonflies – four-spotted chaser – brilliant emerald – emerald damselfly – beautiful demoiselle – brown hawker – common darter – ancient names for: devil’s riding-horses – snake doctors – horse stingers – devil’s darning needles / The slave trade – trade triangle – Olaudah Equiano (Gustavus Vassa) – John Newton trader turned abolitionist – Amazing Grace – The Zong slave ship – William Wilberforce – The Quakers / Protecting birds in Lebanon – Peace and Birds Camp – migration routes – himas / Who were Impressionists – Monet Renoir Pisarro Degas Cezanne – term first used 1874 – painting en plein air / Try Impressionist painting / Rock-It-Ball 2005 – Keith Chegwin / Alice Pocket and the Great Fire of London story part two by Valerie Thame / Win Derwent Aquatone pencils, pastel pencils or pod
April 2007 – Vol XIII 11 – London
Win – Gardening kit / Battersea Dogs & Cats Home – Mary Tealby 1860 / Dr Samuel Johnson 1709-1784 / Win The Usborne Book of London / Topic – London’s history – Romans – Tudors – plague – fire – Trafalgar Square – Houses of Parliament – London Eye – Cleopatra’s Needle – St Paul’s Cathedral – Millennium Bridge – London Bridge – The Globe Theatre – The Swiss Re Building – The Gherkin – Tower Bridge – Tower of London – Christopher Wren – timeline 100BC to present / Wordworm’s Cockney rhyming slang / Pearly Kings and Queens – make a pearly item / Alice Pocket and the Great Fire of London story part one by Valerie Thame
March 2007 – Vol XIII 10 – Coral reefs
Win Giant Skeleton kit or Bones Book and Mini Skeleton / Coral – polyps – plankton – algae zooxanthellae – symbiotic relationships – threats to coral – bleaching – oxygen radicals – oceans becoming more acidic – carbonic acid – hydrogen ions – pH of seawater 8.2 – pH scale – pure water 7.0 – strong acid 0 – strong alkali 14 / Fractals – cauliflower – cow parsley – ferns – Mandelbrot – snowflakes – Snowflake Curve Koch Curve – make a snowflake fractal with elastic / Salt – Kansas Underground Salt Museum – Avery Island salt dome – brine – vacuum pan evaporator – prefixes and suffixes indicating salt wich wyche sal / Make a simnel pastry for Mother’s Day / Topic coral reefs – giant clams – sea slugs – sea wasps – brain coral – staghorn – sea fan – clownfish – anemones – barracudas – regal tang – clown triggerfish – butterfly fish – stone fish – parrotfish – cleaner wrasses – moray eel – crown of thorns starfish – Great Barrier Reef – hammerhead shark – wobbegong shark – reef shark – lion fish – manta ray – sea horse / Story Japanese folktale Momo-Taro retold by Jennifer Maruno / Win a boat trip to go dolphin spotting or a dolphin soft toy
February 2007 – Vol XIII 9 – Zoo animals
Environmental enrichment – presentation of food – chimps seals sea lions monkeys tigers lorikeets lories / Drusillas Park – breeding programmes – record keeping – studbooks – animal records – conservation – fund raising / Zarafa giraffe walks from Marseilles to Paris 1827 / Development of modern zoos – menageries – oldest zoo Vienna – animals in captivity for and against – Jumbo / Make a giraffe puppet / AQUILA ‘Young reporter’ competition 2007 – school dinners / Wordworm et Henri au zoo / Story Harry and the Outlaws part two by Rowena Edlin-White / Win tickets to Science of Spying exhibition / Win Bird Watching made easy dvd – draw a bird
January 2007 – Vol XIII 8 – Fakes and forgeries
Win Gatty’s Tale by Kevin Crossley-Holland / Meet the author Kevin Crossley-Holland / Animals in wars – dogs horses elephants pigeons dolphins goldfish cats – Army Veterinary Corps – Winkie pigeon – Judy Buster dogs – Simon cat – PDSA Dickin medal – Voytek bear – Bandoola elephant / Science – counterfeit coins banknotes passports – clipping / Make fake book / Topic Fakes and forgeries – fairy photographs 1920 – Conan Doyle – Loch Ness Monster – Piltdown Man – Dawson – Horatio Bottomley – Mona Lisa – magic trick moving arrow / Prime numbers – public key code / Story Harry and the Outlaws part one by Rowena Edlin-White / Win Membership of Pups Club or Cuddly pup from Guide Dogs for the Blind
December 2006 – Vol XIII 7 – Winter
Win Wobble Deck / Astra winter stars – Uranus – Andromeda Galaxy – Orion Nebula – Pleiades / EB wildlife in winter – migrant birds – hibernation – bird-feeding / The long winter of 1947 / Winter – solstice – Earth’s axis – skating – snow sleet hail – skiing boarding bobsleigh – ‘Twas the night before Christmas – Demeter Persephone Hades – Inuit Sami / Story Best Christmas by Jackie Banerjee / Make Christmas cards / Win Lego Star Wars computer games / Wordworm’s Christmas crossword
November 2006 – Vol XIII 6 – Energy
Win DVDs Growing Up Wild – Peter Pan on Ice ticket / Shell Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year / Make sun prints and decorate notebook – penholder – cards etc / Are you an energy expert? quiz / 15th Aquila Treasure Hunt part 2 / Aquila Energy game – topic – carbon footprint – reduce energy consumption – food – increase plant life to help air quality – food miles – tv and pc left on standby / Science – build an electric battery with lemons – forms of energy – light – nuclear – electrical – heat – strain – movement – sound – chemical – gravity – make a wind pump / Kit Kangaroo – judo – introduced to England by Gunji Koizumi – Olympics 1964 – translates as ‘gentle way’ / Room in the attic – short story by Sue Smith / Results of Finish the Story competition
October 2006 – Vol XIII 5 – Large and small
Win audio CD – Starring Tracy Beaker / Aquila peers into the past at Dinosaurs – rebuilding fossilized skeletons – Brachiosaurus Diplodocus Argentinosaurus Supersaurus Sauroposeidon Bruhathkayosaurus sauropod Amphicoelia fragillimus Spinosaurus Giganotosaurus Carcharodontosaurus Mapusaurus Tyrannosaurus rex Baryonyx Microraptor Alvarezsaurids Saltopus Composgnathus Lesothosaurus Heterodontosaurus Ichthyosaurs Pliosaurs Pterosaurs Suchomimus Hypsilophodon Barosaurus Bambiraptor Gorgosaurus Cretaceous / Cells molecules atoms – microscopes electron microscope – Antonie van Leeuwenhoek – x-rays – tunnelling electron microscope – protons neutrons nucleus – fermions bosons elementary particles quarks gluons – light years – CMB cosmic microwave background radiation – dead stars – string theory – quantum mechanics – relativity / Deepest hole on earth – crust mantle core tectonic plates – Velebit Croatia – Tau tona goldmine – Kola Russia – Windischeschenbach Germany – Chikyu project Japan / Topic large and small – flea circus – world population – aluminium cans – hair thickness – Pluto named by Venetia Phair – globalisation – largest Christian church – Britain’s fattest king – grains of rice on chessboard – chromosomes – DNA deoxyribonucleic acid – Napoleon’s height – Krakatau – Tambora – Mt St Helens / Art – enlarge or reduce picture / 15th Aquila Treasure Hunt part 1 / Story part 3 – Demon Drum by Elizabeth Kay / Win Global Garden pop-up book
September 2006 – Vol XIII 4 – Georgian times
Win – Green Board Games – Picdoku – Blokus / British t-shirt in Uganda – second-hand clothes – mivumba / Make Georgian house – dolls house / Science – James Watt and Sir Humphry Davy – steam engines – Thomas Newcomen – cylinders – pistons – Matthew Boulton – Boulton-Watt pumping engine – Kew Bridge Steam Museum – horse power – one Watt equal to one joule of energy per second – nitrous oxide laughing gas – anaesthetic – Royal Institution – Alessandro Volta – batteries – electrolysis – miner’s safety lamp – Davy Lamp / Georgian times topic – 1714-1830 – Hanoverians – Regency – God save the King national anthem – Ireland joined to Great Britain Act of Union – Enclosure – first steam railway Richard Trevithick / Life of Jane Austen – Pride and Prejudice / Story part two – Demon Drum by Elizabeth Kay / Wordworm words from Georgian times – bigwig jacobite scrag sash windows romantics bodysnatchers enclosure bedlam / Win book Eats Shoots and Leaves
July/August 2006 – Vol XIII 2/3 – Camels and Llamas/New Zealand
Win – Design a cover for AQUILA / Vicunas – camelids – South America – Incas shear fleeces – Bolivia – Ulla Ulla National Reserve / Law – right to roam – countryside and rights of way act (CROW) – access land – rights of pasture – piscary – estover – Countryside code / Make camel spit cookies – iced biscuits / Topic – camels and llamas – alpacas – in Britain Peru Chile Bolivia – llamas ears like bananas – alpacas ears like spears – young called cria – guanacos – dromedary – bactrian / Win Wallace & Gromit DVD Curse of the Were Rabbit / H G Wells – science fiction – martian sculpture in Woking – War of the Worlds / Tasmanian Tiger – last of her kind? – thylacine – cloning / Story part one – Demon Drum by Elizabeth Kay / Ta Moko – Maori legend – tattoos / New Zealand storm petrel – Hauraki Gulf – Geordie Murman – pelagic birds – radio transmitters – bird lice / Win pop-up Encyclopedia Prehistorica Sharks and Sea Monsters / Aquila peers into the past at Captain Cook discovers New Zealand – search for southern continent – Joseph Banks – transit of Venus – Botany Bay – the bark Endeavour / Make a Maori headband – taniko weaving / Topic – New Zealand travelogue – Aotearoa Land of the long white cloud – Hangi barbecue – kiwis – Te Papa Tongarewa – moa – NZ flag / Astra – southern sky – rabbit in the moon – crux southern cross – large Magellanic cloud – small Magellanic cloud – LMC SMC – carina – jewel box / Hinepau the flax weaver – Maori creation myth retold by Ronda Armitage / Sport – famous names – Sir Richard Hadlee – Jonah Lomu – Casey Williams – Valerie Vili – Mark Todd – Hamish Carter – Bevan Docherty – John Walker / Win Jinx on the Divide / Wordworm’s summer crossword
June 2006 – Vol XIII 1 – Climate change
Win books – Barkbelly, Snowbone / Meet illustrator Gary Northfield / Gases in the air – carbon dioxide – methane – water – greenhouse effect – ice cores – estimate your carbon footprint / Story – Eric Numbskull part 2 / Global warming – be a reporter competition results / Photovoltaic cells – solar cells – photovoltaics – silicon – solar parks – Green Futures Centres of Inspiration / Make a recycled rug – polythene bags rag rug / Win GoGetter puzzles
May 2006 – Vol XII 12 – Making music
Win life story book of Mozart / National Village Show – grow a giant sunflower / Do you need glasses? – wearing spectacles – are glasses cool? – headaches – eye tests – which frames? – discomfort / Science – sounds – music – vibrations – sound waves – amplify – blowing – hitting – plucking – scraping – glass harmonica – bottles of water – box and rubber bands – standing waves / Make wind chimes with found objects and terracotta pots / Topic making music – play an instrument – violin – harp – ocarina – tablas / Story – Eric Numbskull part 1 by Julie Coomer / Wordworm – definitions – complete the sentences / In tune – didgeridoo – what is it – what does it mean – termites – secret music – player profile plastic pipe – Kevin Howard professional didgeridoo teacher / Maths – Sophie Germain – life during the Revolution – Monsieur Le Blanc – important dates in Sophie’s life / Win Tribal Kazoo kits
April 2006 – Vol XII 11 – The Incas
Win DVDs – Pirates – kids do yoga too / Young Archaeologist of the Year Award 2006 / Make painted Easter eggs – Easter in Germany – Bieberbach – Osterhase – dye eggs with onion – spinach leaves – tea leaves – beetroot – polish up with bacon rind / Are two eyes better than one? – binocular vision – monocular vision – depth perception – predators – prey / A trip with Raul – Inca boy – Cuzco ombligo del mundo – Sacsayhuaman – Tambo Machay – Pisac sacred valley – Altiplano – Salineras salt pans – Ollantaytambo – canchas housing blocks – Machu Picchu / Topic – the Incas – brain surgery llamas alpacas quipu conquistadors quechua language terraces guano mummies / Make quipu / Aquila peers at union jack / Black cat for luck story part 2 / Win membership of Children’s Poetry Bookshelf and see your poem in print / Over to you – Grand Basset Griffon Vendeen and Petit dogs – Lara Fowler’s life in France / Surf it – virtual inca archaeology
March 2006 – Vol XII 10 – Water, wells & irrigation
Win Chasing Vermeer book / Waterway wildlife – rivers – canals – bats – coots – dragonflies – grass snakes – frogs – herons – kingfishers – swans – otters / Astra – water for life – water on other planets – Mars’ ice caps – Stardust returns to Earth with material from Comet Wild 2 – New Horizons spacecraft to Pluto / Make wishing well money box / Topic – water cycle – icebergs – evaporation – condensation – precipitation – WaterAid charity – Sakia – Archimedes’ screw – shaduf / Kit Aussie rules football – Australian rules / Wordworm et Henri – le cycle de l’eau – the water cycle / Black cat for luck story part 1 / Win a Superweek with ATE holidays
February 2006 – Vol XII 9 – Baby Creatures
Win Spartapussbooks / Whipsnade Wild Animal Park – Southern white rhinoceros – Reticulated giraffe – Gemsbok – Common hippopotamus – Asian elephant – Grevy’s zebra – Roan antelope / It’s the law – Hunting ban – Parliament – House of Commons – House of Lords – The Queen – Parliament Act 1911 – Parliament Act 1949 – War Crimes Act 1991 – Countryside Alliance / Make pancakes – Scotch pancakes – Shrove Tuesday – shriving – Lent – Mardi Gras – pancake races – Olney 1445 / Topic – human baby – babies’ eyes dark blue – leopards – lions – wolf – wolves – turtles – quokka marsupial – blue whale / Do you know your roots? – Rooted television series – Bangladesh – India – Morocco – Punjab – St Kitts Caribbean – Jordan – Bulgaria / Win Su Doku book / Story by Rowena Edlin-White – Can Billy Play? Part 2 / Wordworm’s baby words – ‘-let’ ‘-ling’
January 2006- Vol XII 8 – The Media
Win Narnia CDs / Mozart – Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus – Amadeus – Salzburg – Leopold – Constanze – Ludwig Kochel catalogue K numbers / Science books reviewed / Make zoetrope wheel of life / Topic Media – newspapers magazines internet television radio – BBC – Takeover Radio – British Board of Film Censorship – censor / Squabbles and quarrels / Competition – Be a reporter for AQUILA – see your report published – Horrible Geography books for runners up / Story by Rowena Edlin-White – Can Billy Play? Part 1 / Dr Who – Time Lords Tardis Cybermen Ice Warriors Silurians Daleks The Master / Pen friend club
December 2005 – Vol XII 7 – Penguins
Win DVD Madagascar / Venus and Mars – phases of Venus – Venus Express / Frankincense – resin – Dhofar – Oman – Yemen – Balthazar – Ethiopia – Saba – fragrances – Cleopatra – Rome – Babylon – frankincense used in mummification – Nero – Baal – kohl eye liner – breath freshener – medicinal uses – camel caravans – Hadhramaut – dhows – Empty Quarter – manghaf knife – lost city of Ubar / Make a penguin mobile / Penguin topic – Antarctica – South Africa – Galapagos – Adelie – Gentoo – Emperor – King – Chinstrap – Rockhopper – Humboldt – Macaroni / Tearcraft – 30 years – poverty – fair trade – Tearfund – Bangladesh – George Hoffman / Meet Eoin Colfer / Win Artemis Fowl The Opal Deception / Clue! short story by Mary Bridson / Wordworm’s Christmas Crossword / Over to you – reader Rose Mulvey’s unfinished story Intention
November 2005 – Vol XII 6 – The senses
Win ‘Don’t Panic’ game / Perfume – perfumed oils – ancient Egyptians – Greeks – Romans – cardamom – aloe – citron – lily – marjoram – rose – myrtle – peppermint – rosemary – essential oils – lavender – make pot pourri / Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year / The rights of children – legal – civil – political – economic – cultural – UN – United Nations – Unicef – Convention on the Rights of the Child – school charter – refugees – displaced people – child soldiers – Angola – Sierra Leone / Sense of sight – hearing – taste – touch – smell – brain – nerve cells – optical illusions – sixth sense – sound waves – diagram of ear – decibels dB – taste buds – Nelson’s eye grizzly party trick / Palindromes – 3-letter – 4-letter / Make pomanders – oranges – cloves – spices – lemons – limes / Sherlock Holmes – Arthur Conan Doyle – Basil Rathbone – Jeremy Brett – Dr Watson – Mrs Hudson – Professor Moriarty – Inspector Lestrade – Baker Street Irregulars / Hands on History story part 3 / Win Tintin and Snowy Album 1 / 14th Aquila Treasure Hunt part 2
October 2005 – Vol XII 5 – Treasure
Tearcraft 30th anniversary / Peer into the past at Battle of Trafalgar 1805 – Horatio Nelson – Napoleon Bonaparte – emperor of France – Admiral Villeneuve – French fleet – Spanish fleet – Cadiz – invasion of Britain – Battle of Waterloo – Napoleonic wars – Thomas Masterman Hardy – HMS Victory – Collingwood – parts of a ship – cutaway of Victory / Go Treasure Hunting – Global positioning system – GPS – geocaching – travel bugs – latitude – longitude / 14th Aquila Treasure Hunt pt 1 / Harvey looks at gold – silver – diamonds – carats – pure carbon – diamond lattice – refractive index – carob tree – ceratonia siliqua – St John’s bread – siliqua – keratia – Great Star of Africa – cutting – round brilliant – graphite – industrial diamonds – dentist’s drill – cremation ashes / Pirates’ treasure – Clementine – gold rush 1849 – prospectors – Superstition Mountain Arizona – Sutton Hoo Suffolk – Machu Picchu – Andes – conquistadors – Cortes – Quetzalcoatl – Montezuma – Pizarro – pharaohs – curses – Tutankhamun Tutankhamen – Howard Carter – Lord Carnarvon / Make a treasure chest from old Weetabix boxes / Hands on history story pt 2 – six wives of Henry VIII
September 2005- Vol XII 4 – Ancient Rome
Making acd – Thomas Edison – first recordings – phonograph – LP – vinyl – Abbey Road studios / story of Pompeii – Vesuvius – Herculaneum – Pliny the younger Pliny the elder – Tacitus / Roman plumbing – public baths – tepidarium – calidarium – frigidarium – aqueducts / Roman life – Romulus – amphitheatre – toga – senators / make Roman cake – libum / look after your back – back pain – physiotherapists / story – Hands on history pt 1 / 12 Latin phrases
July/Aug 2005- Vol XII 2/3 – China / bees & wasps
Design acover comp / Win Chinese brush painting kit / win poetry anthology / win Super Spy kit / win microscope / pandas / fireworks – pyrotechnics – calcium – copper – strontium – sodium – barium / Chinese gift envelope / yin and yang – feng shui / Chinese philosophy – how the world became – dao – sage – Lao Tze – immortal Lu / Astra – Arecibo radio telescope – exoplanets / Calculata’s binary code for communicating with aliens / Dreamtime story pt 2 / read it / surf it / Falkland Islands – king penguin – gentoo / vacuum – Otto von Guericke – Magdeburg / Kit’s athletics – running – jumping – throwing / recipes with honey / Wheelchair wonder short story / pen friends
June 2005- Vol XII 1 – Fossils
Win Dr Who book / body fossils – trace fossils – crinoids – jurassic – Dorset – sea urchins – starfish – thunderstones – shelly limestone – ammonite – Rockwatch / win Egyptology book / Chinese paper cuts – dragon – butterfly – dolphin / EB saving energy – Changa Manga Pakistan stove / fossil record game / wearing a brace / picture writing / Dreamtime story pt 1 / hunt Harlequin ladybird / read it
May 2005 – Vol XI 12 – Photography
Win cycling goody bag / win crime mystery books / Mt St Helens volcano – Loowit / camera obscura – Aristotle – Euclid – Kepler / make photo album / Daguerrotypes – digital / horse riding / Amazing Billy Chickweed story pt 2 / hold your own election / pen friends
April 2005- Vol XI 11 – Shakespeare
Win Fandex field guide to Shakespeare / win classic fairy tale book and cd / Medical charity IASIS in Brazil / fat / make model theatre / in tune – glass music / Hans Christian Andersen / Inessential Shakespeare / Amazing Billy Chickweed story pt 1 / read it
March 2005- Vol XI 10 – Engineering
Win LogiRobot / life in Sri Lanka / make mother’s day present / jelly bean engineering / how we elect leaders – democracy / Courage of Spartans story pt 2 / quick multiplication / Huygens – Cassini – Titan / win bundle of five books / pen friends
February 2005- Vol XI 9 – Wildlife in Britain
Win nature hide & seek book / meet Roger McGough / make nest boxes for birds and bees / animal sayings / Win owl puke / make animal masks / competitions and ideas for half term / Courage of Spartans story pt 1 / read it
January 2005- Vol XI 8 – History
Win Stephen Jackson’s Mirrorworld / lacrosse / Nikola Tesla / Captain Coram – foundlings – mudlarks – children’s home / history snakes and ladders game / make Celtic knots / Nicole and paper witches story pt 3 / read it / WW and Henri calendar / win Power Yo yoyo with cd of tricks / pen friends
December 2004- Vol XI 7 – Christmas fun
Win Peter Pan & Wendy centenary edition / Dian Fossey – mountain gorillas of Rwanda / Polly Chrome’s negatives / Aquila peers at Peter Pan / Christmas traditions and fun things to do / Nicole & Paper Witches story pt 2 / December night sky / read it / Treasure hunt pt 2
November 2004- Vol XI 6 – The wheel
Win Kids R Cooking cd / Young wildlife photographer of the year / science wheelies – cart – car -yacht – windmill – measuring – pulley / tyres / Polly’s textures / advice for young authors / pen friends / Nicole and Paper Witches story pt 1 / Treasure hunt pt 1 / Win Art Attack comic creator
October 2004- Vol XI 5 – Mystery
Win Kingfisher book on Spies / fencing / young carers / science mysteries – rainbow – bacteria – lightning – meteorites – fungi – gravity – Einstein – Newton / topic mysteries – premonition – Nessie – Hector dog crosses Pacific – sixth sense – esp – psychic – Mary Celeste – Bermuda Triangle / make things with pumpkins / Haunting of Tamsin Carter story / pen friends / win peg sculpture / read it / children’s book week
September 2004- Vol XI 4 – Celts
Win Frozen Billy by Anne Fine / lakes in Kenya / make butterfly hibernation box / Cassini – Huygens – Phoebe – storms on Saturn – Titan / peat bogs – Lindow man / place names / win fluorescent pencils / read it / Radio Detective story pt 2 / Red Squirrels
July/Aug 2004- Vol XI 2/3 – France/Turtles / terrapins / tortoises
Win front cover comp / gulls / Antoine Laurent Lavoisier – burning – guillotine / sporting heroes / monotype / WW and Henri seaside spot difference / read it / Galileo pictures of Jupiter / win Wallace & Gromit / Spell of Mischief story / animals of Everglades / quiz / Win Harry Potter quiz book / things to do – places to see – National Maritime Museum – Royal Observatory – RHS Wisley – natural history / make tortoise jewellery treasure box / pen friends / Radio Detective story pt 1 / win Our Ocean Home book / water experiments – paddleboat – jet boat – fish – cork trick – fountain – siphon
June 2004- Vol XI 1 – Olympic games
Win footballer Airfix models / eagles back in Britain / diaries – Pepys – Scott – Anne Frank – Sophia Sage / transit of Venus / make picnic food / surf it / Win Amazing Board Game book / Trick of the Light story pt 2
May 2004 – Vol X 12 – English language
Win activity holiday – Mill on the Brue / spring in Japan – Samurai – Hanami / meet Jacqueline Wilson / win Jacqueline Wilson books / homophones – dialect / make wildlife garden – butterflies – moths – flowers / portmanteau words – tongue twisters – palindromes – pseudodrome / learning English in Germany / scientific language – Newton – Ohm – Volt – Watt – Joule – Ampere – Curie / Trick of the Light story pt 1 / enter Young Travel Photographer comp
April 2004- Vol X 11 – Gardening
Win Alpha nature game / bonsai / herb gardens / make mini garden – draughtsman’s garden Groombridge Place / pen friends / Long Shadows story pt 3 / comets – 2002 T7 linear – 2001 Q4 neat – Procyon – wild 2 – ESA Rosetta mission / win planisphere / RAS newspaper comp for schools – transit of Venus
March 2004- Vol X 10 – Metals
Win Encyclopaedia Britannica cd – nature – dinosaurs / Michael Bell ballooning in Kenya / nucleus – electrons – atoms – metal fatigue – cores – battery experiment with wire wool / word alloys / World Book Day / paint magic squares – watercolour – gouache – pastel – basket weave / Konigsberg bridge problem / win Avenger book / Long Shadows story pt 2 / Tintin at Greenwich
February 2004- Vol X 9 – Elephants
Win l’Artiste umbrella / news from Mars – Jodrell Bank – Mars Exploration Rover – Spirit – Opportunity / make paper elephant / twins / archery / win books by leading authors – World Book Day / Long Shadows story pt 1 / pen friends / surf it / 21st BG young wildlife photographer – calling all snappers
January 2004- Vol X 8 – Exploration
Win Explorers wanted! books / Biba letter to Morocco / brainfeeder – fabled lands and lost cities – Troy – Atlantis – Pompeii – Machu Picchu – Chichen Itza – Timbuktu / doom paintings – Protestants – Calvinists – Martin Luther – Catholics – indulgences – reformation – Holy Trinity Church Coventry / make ancient map – explorers – pirates / exploration game / Beagle on Mars – river valleys – Mars express – Baikonur cosmodrome Kazakhstan – position adjustable workbench – mole – gas analysis package – carbon atoms 12C – 13C – isotopes – proton – neutron – mass spectrometer – magnet – Colin Pillinger / read it / maths fun with maps – topography – topology – Roger Fenn – table theorem / win metallic pen pods / Sacrifice story – Aztec times / Go UK challenge for schools
December 2003- Vol X 7 – Festivals
Winter night sky – solstice – German artist Sigmar Polke – name in stars / Zoe – Biba – Morocco / make pinata / surf it / treasure hunt pt 2 / pen friends / win Custard Shop / maths – amazing folding card – two sides but four pictures / Clone encounter story pt 4 / win Toastabag
November 2003- Vol X 6 – Light and colour
St Martin’s Day / treasure hunt pt 1 / Clone encounter story pt 3 / win toboggan / science – Newton – prism – spectrum – refraction – filament bulb and low energy bulb – colour wheels / wildlife photographer pictures / topic – electromagnetic spectrum – convex – concave – why sky blue – Newton’s dog Diamond – sun screen – mirage – laser – why sunset red / art – Turner – Cezanne – Impressionism – Seurat – Divisionism – Fauve – Pointillist – complementary colour – Rembrandt – Vermeer – contre-jour – chiaroscuro – colour wheels / dingbats / optical illusions / pen friends / win Lemony Snicket book / letter – Anglesey sea zoo aquarist for a day
October 2003- Vol X 5 – Caring for the planet
Millennium SeedBank – Royal Botanic Gardens Kew – Wakehurst Place / win mini seed bank kit / win Rainforest adventure book / life on Mars – terraforming – Mars atmosphere – Hubble space telescope – habitable zone – greenhouse effect – biomes – Eden project / make lunchbox food – crudites – tortilla wrap – tapas – fruit salad – nuts seeds dried fruit – pudding – fruity fairy cake – flapjack / poverty chain puzzle / eco friendly living – caring for planet – buses – tiger threatened by talc – rainforests – rubbish – save trees – save energy – save environment / unusual pets in Africa – tortoise – hare – eland / Children’s Book Week / win Safari book / Clone encounter story pt 2 / read it / Young Environment Champion of year
September 2003- Vol X 4 – Normans
Doctor Colin Tourle – IASIS – in Brazil / Win Catz and Dogz cd / comets from 1066 onwards – Bayeux tapestry – Edmund Halley – Shoemaker-Levy – Hale-Bopp – buried on another planet – Moon – Soho / make a castle / topic – feudal system – tanks – barons – Rollo / quiz – good at studying? / pen friends / WW – Latin – word endings – declension / win Divide by Elizabeth Kay / Clone encounter story pt 1 / Travel Photographer of the year
July/Aug 2003- Vol X 2/3 – Australia/amphibians
Win design a cover / navigators – Matthew Flinders – George Bass – Cook – Aborigines – Dutch – Hartog – Nuyts – Tasman – surveying / children shipped to Botany Bay – convicts / holiday sketch book – Turner – Constable – Delacroix / southern sky – Mars in opposition / crystal mobile – platonic solids / read it / get fit with Kit – warm up warm down – endurance flexibility strength speed – stretching – avoid injury / win Starbles / Magician’s assistant story / Swallows & Amazons – Arthur Ransome – Peel Island – Coniston Water – Lakeland – Kendal / make origami frogs – leap frog game / pen friends / win Sculpey modelling clay / EB visits school in southern India – Ronda and David Armitage – Scad – Cheranmahadevi in Tamil Nadu – Pongal – Kolam – Rangoli – salt pan – snake charmer – Spice Mountains / topic – tadpole – frog toad skin spawn migration – life cycle / meet Anne Fine – children’s laureate 2001-2003 / Brooch story / win Anne Fine’s books / days out – Maritime Museum – Royal Observatory – Drusillas – Wildlife Trusts / win tickets for Seedling Arts children’s festival / win tickets to Imax cinema
June 2003- Vol X 1 – AQUILA 10th birthday/microscopes
EB goes to Zimbabwe – Nyamuwanga primary school – Zambesi – Zambia / Case of missing coin story pt 2 / Karl Stetter studies tiniest organisms – optical tweezer – hyperthermophile / Robert Hooke – Antoni van Leeuwenhoek – dust mite – reflection refraction – microchip – micro machines / take good photos / win binoculars / electron microscope – eukaryotic cells – membranes – prokaryotic – DNA – Escherichia coli – E coli – vacuole – chloroplast / surf it – good email guide / pen friends / win Window effects pens from Crayola / win telescope – Society for Popular Astronomy / Wrong Trousers Day – Westlife
May 2003 – Vol IX 12 – Textiles
Beagle mission to Mars – canals – Lowell – Martian bacterium fossil – Sojourner – water on Mars / win Designer Applique kit / Case of missing coin story pt1 / make felt / topic – silk – dye – weave warp weft loom / man-made fibres – polymers – nylon – drip dry – experiments – absorbency and slime / Levi Strauss – jeans / conquest of Everest 50 years ago – Edmund Hillary – Tenzing Norgay / win To the top book / pen friends / win How to train your parents book
April 2003- Vol IX 11 – Cities
Jewish festival of Passover – kosher – matza – seder plate – haroset – afikomen – chametz / win Spanish dictionary book and cd / water – impermeable – porous – artesian well – make your own artesian well / make Easter bunny / Crime is a five letter word story pt 2 / postcards from cities / city collage / win Multimedia guide to horses / Successful surfing – guide to the web / walk on wild side – otters – hedgehogs – foxes – toads / RAS newspaper competition
March 2003- Vol IX 10 – Rocks and minerals
Tors on Dartmoor / new rocks / sedimentary – magma – gneiss / Crime is a five letter word story pt 1 / Golf / make a display box to show off rock and mineral collection / Rock collecting code – geological trail / Queen Elizabeth I – progresses – armada / win Funky Rocks painting kit / crystals – balls in a box – salt – liquid crystals – diamonds – metal – x-ray crystallography – William Henry Bragg – William Lawrence Bragg / win Pirates of Pompeii book / Young Archaeologist of the year – invent your own Viking saga
February 2003- Vol IX 9 – Rats, mice and rodents
Keeping a pet rodent / We all love Latin – counting – well known phrases / living with the Maasai – Michael Bell in Kenya – Bau game / win Gross Anatomy book / Philosopher Rene Descartes – I think / therefore I am – cogito ergo sum / Fur trade / Blind men and the elephant / make rat catcher – drainpipe / Ghost hunters story pt 3 / win Kingfisher Book of Living Worlds / Know your vole – difference between vole and rat / win Super-pets and Smart Owners book
January 2003- Vol IX 8 – Numbers
WWF Earth Champions – world summit – water dome / win Wallace & Gromit book / make magic frame – three dimensional magic square / golden ratio – Fibonacci sequence – virtuvian man – Leonardo da Vinci – golden rectangle / zero – 0 – natural numbers – integers – fraction – rational numbers – irrational number – square root – algebraic – pi – squaring the circle – transcendental / Ghost hunters story pt 2 / Go Chinese game – igo – wei qi – baduk / win Go game and book / planets – gas giant Jupiter – Saturn / Wildlife Photographer of the year
December 2002- Vol IX 7 – Life in the dark
Bats / Law – shopping – contracts – consumer / make Christmas gift bags / desert night – owls – light pollution – shiftwork / midwinter constellations / 11th treasure hunt pt 2 / win Complete book of the night / Ghost hunters story pt 1 /
November 2002- Vol IX 6 – Electricity & magnetism
Treasure hunt pt 1 / Lewes bonfire – Catholics – Protestants – gunpowder plot / win Pirate Diary book / Tibby’s round the world adventure story pt 4 / Samuel Morse – Oersted – make magnet / cause of lightning – power stations – national grid – James Clerk Maxwell – Benjamin Franklyn – Michael Faraday – James Watt / electric experiments – circuit – bulb holder – electromagnet / Young wildlife photographer of the year winning pics / make lamp for Divali / surf it / read it
October 2002- Vol IX 5 – Cookery
Beatrix Potter – 100th anniversary of Peter Rabbit – Hill Top – Frederick Warne – Sawrey / pen friends / maths – pi – throwing sticks at paving slabs / chemistry in kitchen – yeast – bread dough – baking powder – proteins – microwaves – sugars and caramel / netball / make harvest festival feast – vegetable soup – cheesy potato bake – apple and blackcurrant crumble – ginger and apple fizz / Roman dinner menu – why cook food? – kedgeree – ravioli – crepes suzette – paella – goulash – hummus – couscous – sushi – chow mein – fajitas – why tummy rumble / win Demon Headmaster books / Tibby’s round the world adventure story pt 3 / Children’s Book Week / win Usborne World Cookery book and apron / Wildlife Trust – apple day
September 2002- Vol IX 4 – World war II
Meet Eva Ibbotson – her childhood in Vienna / win Journey to the River Sea / inventions dating from the war – radar – Robert Watson-Watt – doodle bug – inflatable tank – prefabs – Frank Whittle turbo jet aero engine – ballpoint – biro – atomic bomb – rocket – Wernher von Braun – Mulberry harbour – Pluto pipeline under the ocean / Tibby’s round the world adventure story pt 2 / surf it / win Column games by John Crane / Holocaust / make nodding dog / Schultuten – school cones – magic tree – sugar prince – zuckertutenbaum / maths – clothing coupons – dress boy and girl – cut out clothes and dolls / WW spy codes – Playfair
July/August 2002- Vol IX 2/3 – America/Mini beasts
Volcanoes inHawaii – Pele / win design a cover / make sundial / NASA – space shuttle / USA – rubbish – Henry Ford – Puritans – Mayflower – slaves / Children and the law / win Toro toro book / hurricanes / Andy Warhol / Slug face story / make table top volcano / animal fact sheet 4 Mexican red-knee tarantula spider / win worm farm – wormery / Dig dirt – soil – worms – separate contents of soil / make glitter bugs / Kit’s active sports / Awfully bug adventure – bug hunters’ code – fried locusts / Tibby’s around the world adventures story pt 1 / Education with a difference – home educated / win Creature peepers bug viewer /
June 2002- Vol IX 1 – Plants
Queen Elizabeth’s golden jubilee – accession – George VI – coronation / win Steiff bear / inside plant cells – osmosis – nucleus – vacuole – wilt – potato cube experiment – dandelion stalk experiment / pen friends / Magic magic markers pt 3 / Eden Project / preserve roses in sugar and egg white – most eaten plants – largest cucumber – photosynthesis – chlorophyll – bamboo – kelp – press flowers / dingbats / win Eden Project books / Steiff – Giengen – knopf im ohr – button in ear – creator of teddy bear / draw plants – lily freesia sketchbook / Natural History Museum news – tectonic basin
May 2002 – Vol VIII 12 – Rescue
Apollo 13 – Jim Lovell – Mir / animal attack quiz – crash in desert / Grace Darling – Longstone lighthouse – Bamburgh – Northumbria – RNLI – lifeboats / read it / win Derwent pastel pencils / sea ambulance in East Timor – Atauro – IASIS – Colin Tourle – cholera / St Bernard Barry – bats – George Du Prisne – Dunkirk – Shackleton – Great fire of London – Michael Proudfoot scuba – Ray Mears – sea urchins / art – techniques with pastels – fruit / 999 / Magic magic markers story pt 2 / reading runes – futhark / win Mini biographies
April 2002- Vol VIII 11 – Solar system
Extreme environments – black smokers – hydrothermal vents – archaea – eubacteria – fossilised bacteria / kung fu / John Locke philosophy – education / vermin – comet Hale-Bopp – asteroid Ida’s Moon – Ceres – Pluto – Oort cloud – Pioneer – Voyager – Kuiper belt / win Commonwealth games mascots and magnets / topic race through the solar system – lost in space / make a fold-out model of solar system / mnemonics / pen friends / Magic magic markers story pt 1 / win Jacqueline Wilson books
March 2002- Vol VIII 10 – Rivers
Animal fact sheet 3 – Grey parrot / win Poetry by Heart / pics of carp – piranha – electric eel – gar pike – pike – rainbow trout – perch / It’s the law – what is law – how made? – monarch – House of Commons / make mother’s day card – quilled flowers – sugar paste or fondant roses / Ganges – Nile – Mississippi / Walk down the Pier story pt 2 / win Usborne Encyclopaedias of world geography / Harry Potter reviews of film / WW Latin – veni vidi vici – farmer sees lizard – beware of dog / read it
February 2002- Vol VIII 9 – Bears
Meet Benjamin Zephaniah / win Refugee Boy book / tangrams / Compassion in world farming – Meg the one-legged hen – free-range / play hockey / make origami dolphin bookmark – pin prick printing – dream catchers / Walk down the pier story pt 1 / animal activist Graham Banes / win Twist and shout quiz game
January 2002- Vol VIII 8 – Communication
Handwriting -graphology / coltan – mobile phone capacitors – gorillas – Congo – columbite-tantalite – tantalum – niobium / Telstar – cape Canaveral – geostationary satellite DIRECTV – low earth orbit – International Space Station / Ten steps to writing well / calligraphy / Bright star and the knight of darkness story / win Whizz kids computer guides / communicate through senses – pony express – smoke signals – radio signal / win Midtown madness – cycle helmet
December 2001- Vol VIII 7 – Fire
Countdown toChristmas – advent – line calendar – Barbara twigs – Munich Christmas calendar / win Adventures in science – Magic tricks – Spy science / Fire triangle – heat – oxygen – fuel – respiration – steel wool experiment – jet of flame / 10th treasure hunt pt 2 / make decorated candle / Wildlife photographer of the year / 100 quiz answers / Great fire of London – John Evelyn – Samuel Pepys – John Farynor / Ghost of Cropston Hall story pt 3
November 2001- Vol VIII 6 – Puzzles and codes
Treasure hunt pt 1 / 10 things you didn’t know about jigsaws / win Compass Murphy novel / maths – magic cube / 10 things you didn’t know about Morse code / station X – ultra – Playfair – Bletchley – Enigma machine / make a clue cake – mini Christmas cake / play rugby / Ghost of Cropston Hall story pt 2 / Pig pen code / Harry Potter crossword / choose new 7 wonders of world / seven wonders of ancient world / win Fluorescent jigsaw
October 2001- Vol VIII 5 – Crafts
Pied piper cross stitch / Sticky stuff – glues and adhesives – polymerisation – cyanoacrylate / quilling paper insects / make furry bat mask / win Amazing Christmas mosaics book / Ghost of Cropston Hall story pt 1 / win Derwent Aquatone Colour Sticks / make decorations with decoupage / read it / pen friends
September 2001- Vol VIII 4 – 100th issue/Greeks
Animal fact sheet 2 – Tortoise / pen friends / WW Greek – Archimedes – Pythagoras – pi – Greek alphabet – Troy – Iliad – Plato / ancient Greece – Crete – Minoa – Trojan horse / 4th century Athens / win Greek Olympics book from British Museum – fun books for runners up / Greek stories of science / Aristotle philosophy – golden mean / Number 10 shirt story / quiz – 100 questions from 100 issues / Greek maths – Socrates – Plato / is it okay to cry? – Aquila line / read it / art – perspective / 100 jokes
July/August 2001- Vol VIII 2/3 – India/Birds
Win design a cover and win Get painting set from Walker books / Bubbles – make big bubbles / Birds in space – Cygnus – Aquila – Veil nebula – Deneb – Pelican – Dumbbell – Vega – pillars in centre of Eagle nebula / Swimming / Indian food – curried red kidney beans – potato cauliflower and peas – naan bread – cheese fudge / Srinivasa Ramanujan mathematician – number theory – G H Hardy – partitions / Tiger in the forest story / make a rakhi – raksha bandhan bandan – friendship bracelet / make treasure box casket / history in high street – postbox – window tax – shambles – market cross – coaching inn – cartshed – portico / win Woodland trust goodies / Birdwatching / win binoculars and pocket guide / Dogwalkers story pt 2 / writing a cartoon story / pebbles and rocks on beach – sedimentary – metamorphic – igneous – schist – gemstone – granite / history of post – cursus publicus – Roger of Tassis – Bergamo – Maximilian – Philip the handsome / win Asterix cartoon book
June 2001- Vol VIII 1 – Prehistoric times
Foot and mouth disease / win Stone Age news / stories of science – gravitational constant – big G – Henry Cavendish / maths dominoes and diamonds – tetramond – pentamond – hexamond / Astra wobbly world – precession – why summer and winter? – Polaris always North Star? / cricket / topic – paleolithic – mesolithic – neolithic – Stonehenge / Dogwalkers story pt 1 / read it / National Vegetarian Week – veggie recipes for breakfast / pen friends / win computer / wildlife week – wildlife watch / Wrong Trousers Day grand appeal – go wild / history of comics / make fossils – British Geological Survey – Rockwatch
May 2001 – Vol VII 12 – Dance
Animal ark – RSPCA young animal carer of the year 2000 – Robert Bland / global warming / Landing on an asteroid – near earth objects – Mathilde and Eros – Rosetta / philosophy – is it right to eat meat? – Errol the explorer meets cannibals / win Philosophy Files / Bookworming story pt 3 / draw from dance videos / read it / win Emperor’s new groove / Aquila peers at Festival of Britain – Skylon / Wildlife Trust – Children for Change awards / pen friends
April 2001- Vol VII 11 – Chocolate
Animal fact sheet 1 – Boa constrictor / win Jam jar science set / brainfeeder message in a duck with decoder strip at bottom of page / science – emulsions – soap and detergent – lava lamp / census 2001 / applied maths – pure maths – parsecs and parallax angle / chocoholic quiz / meet Becky Chadd wildlife photographer of year 2000 11-14 yrs / win Wildlife photographer book / make Mexican hot chocolate – chilled double thick chocolate milk – curls and leaves – chocolate pizza – rocky road – Easter basket / How far are the stars – parallax – parsecs – colour and brightness / European year of languages / Bookworming story pt 2 / read it
March 2001- Vol VII 10 – Forests
Pen friends / win Tiger Team Mystery books / make mother’s day window and stick-on cards / top 10 brightest stars – magnitude – size of Betelgeuse / girls play football / forest maze / how to measure a tree by bending over – follow Forest Code / World Book Day / Bookworming story pt 1 / fractals / Greenfingers challenge – award for schools that brighten up their environment / read it / meet inventor Tony de Rivaz / win Logiblocs / conkers – heart of the national forest
February 2001- Vol VII 9 – Whales and dolphins
Protecting cetaceans- WDCS / win – adopt a dolphin / Konigsberg bridge / pop music – gramophone records – skiffle – charts – rock and roll – swinging sixties / Daniel and killer whales story / make whale and dolphin foil plaques / how to feed a whale – krill – phytoplankton – zooplankton – baleen / Kit gets fit pt 2 / sea monsters in the sky – Cetus and Delphinus – M77 / SETI newspaper comp for schools – RAS / win Planet Zoo / make pancakes – savoury and sweet / read it / Aquila tv series and book / recipes – lamb Shrewsbury – summer fruit salad
January 2001- Vol VII 8 – Transport
Ballooning -Montgolfier brothers – Jacques Charles – Nicholas Robert / win Scootermania / pollution solutions – internal combustion engine – catalytic converter – hydrocarbons – Honda solar car / get fit with Kit – diet do’s and don’ts / win Floating Fluttering Flying machines cd – invent transport for Aquila team / read it / science stories – lightning conductors – George III – Benjamin Franklyn / Alien Encounter story / transport board game / ask Annabel – annoying spots / pen friends / International Space Station – space travel – Salyut and Skylab – Mir / 10 things you never knew about Queen Victoria / make wheely wonders – racing car – bus / number games for a journey
December 2000- Vol VII 7 – Snow and ice
Nuremberg Christmasmarket – prune man – gingerbread / win Quizmaster game / read it / Moving story / ice crystals – clathrates – ice cores / Lambert glacier Antarctica – Endurance being crushed – ice house – Birdseye / win Wonderful world pop-up book / winter star gazing – Pleiades – brown dwarfs – Orion / 9th treasure hunt pt 2 / make Christmas sweets – candycane reindeer – marshmallow kebabs – Christmas parasol – Christmas pudding crispie cake / EB visits Sami people – Lapland / family history detective – genealogy
November 2000- Vol VII 6 – Archaeology
Professor SirWilliam Matthew Flinders Petrie – father of Egyptology – father of pots / win Explorers book of dinosaurs / read it / Niff smells a rat story pt 3 / Viking rune alphabet – rune message on stone / make mosaics / mummies – ice mummies – peat bogs / November night sky / treasure hunt pt 1 / growth rings in trees – dendrochronology / Young Wildlife Photographer of year / carbon dating C14 – multiplication – Russian multiplication / win Ice Age Dig set / just think – Plato’s Republic / pen friends
October 2000- Vol VII 5 – Books
J K Rowling / maths – imposition – hexatetraflexagon / stamp out bullying / going dotty message – bookworms on bookshelves with decoder strip at bottom of page / Harvey and Astra talk about sun and earth – aurora borealis – solar wind – Earth’s magnetic field – Ulysses – Soho – cluster / make book ends – bookmark / writers’ choice – who read what / topic – Lindisfarne gospels – diamond sutra – Harry Potter – Bible – British Library – Book Aid International / win Hex books – finish the story / children’s book awards / Niff smells a rat story pt 2 / author Shirley Isherwood in the classroom / win Telling tales / National Children’s Book Week
September 2000- Vol VII 4 – Tudor times
Paint portraits / win Science lab sets / taste and smell experiments – taste buds – tongue / Scrapstores / tudor games – football – bearbaiting – cockfighting – wrestling – cudgel play – hoops – knucklebones – hobby horse – windmills – stilts – dolls – cockstride – bucca – backgammon / Niff smells a rat story pt 1 / win Usborne book of art ideas / Hamleys toy consultants / Sydney Olympics / aurora borealis – solar wind / pen friends / cinquains
July/Aug 2000- Vol VII 2/3 – African safari/ships and boats
Animals of Savannah / win Animal ark books / wind and water fun – cascading cups – balloon blasts – cd air hockey / children of western Sahara / make masks – info and ideas / African grasslands / summer star gazing puzzle / Four biggest waterfalls in the world / win – design a cover / Wrong colours story pt 2 / ships & boats – top trumps – nautical terms / school in Fiji / Favourite things – Philippe Delerm / semaphore / super science quiz / digging for treasure -Thomas Stott – Young Archaeologists Club – how to restore a ceramic pot / pen friends / holiday reading / win Red Fox books / make summer food – lemonade – spicy chicken salad – sweet and sour tomato salad – fruit and veg coleslaw – fruit and jelly cubes – hot and cold puddings / No more kissing frogs story / win Funfaxes
June 2000- Vol VII 1 – Food and farming
National Association of Farms for Schools / win Daler-Rowney art materials / giving nature a helping hand – fertilizer – weedkiller – pesticide – organic – genetic modification / play tennis / sunspots / Wrong colours story pt 1 / win Sticky fingers book / Biteback – Ffriends of the Earth campaign for real food / action collage / Donkey Sanctuary Devon / pig pen code / pen friends
May 2000 – Vol VI 12 – Sculpture
Totem poles / win calligraphy and Chinese brush art sets / meet model maker Jo Litchfield / prime numbers / ladybirds / 150 years of public libraries / Horse called Sciolto story pt 2 / make carp kite / win Laureate’s party book / International Children’s Conference / pen friends
April 2000- Vol VI 11 – Medicine
Kit plays football / win Cycle smart goodies / Aquila line – 5 yr old sister keeps shouting / Astra – NEAR (near earth asteroid rendezvous) orbits Eros / Horse called Sciolto story pt 1 / antibiotics – anaesthetics – antiseptics – analgesics – Robert Liston / win Anne Fine books / Edward Jenner – smallpox – vaccination – inoculation – James Phipps / Easter things to make and eat – hot cross buns / children with special needs – how understanding quiz / pen friends / Lucy Keeler on the London Eye
March 2000- Vol VI 10 – Mountains
Mountain people – Andes / brush up spelling – doubling consonants / win Beano brain teaser / ask Dr Annabel – lurching feeling – crossed legs bobbing up and down – headaches / basketball / jazz up your room – interior design – decorating – cushions – walls – pictures / Raptors and sabre-tooths story pt 3 / make mother’s day card and envelope / mountain board game / plate tectonics – earthquakes – volcanoes – continents crash – erosion / win football and basketball books / mountains on Moon and Mars – Olympus Mons – Twin Peaks – Pathfinder / finding fossils – petrification – lithification / pen friends / national spring clean 10th birthday
February 2000- Vol VI 9 – Apes and monkeys
Gorilla – orangutan – chimpanzee – bonobe – virunga volcanoes – WWF / win Ant world set / Valentine’s day – love poems – Bloomsbury book of / Raptors and sabre-tooths story pt 2 / Chinese new year – dragon / brush up spelling – adding s / Astra – Gemini – zodiac – Castor – Pollux – Cygnus – Deneb – Mercury – Zeus / topic – gibbon – capuchin – squirrel monkey – baboon – owl monkey – macaques – measuring intelligence – brain weight and spinal cord / Chinese paper cuts – peacock / win Edge chronicles books / Aquila line – jealous friend / meet author and illustrator – Paul Stewart – Chris Riddell – Blobheads / Orangutan Foundation / Pet Smile month
January 2000- Vol VI 8 – Machines and robots
Medway robot wars – Wedgehog – Leighviathon / pen friends / Astra – Luna 3 – lunakhods – PSA personal satellite assistant – Sojourner – Polar Lander / win Masters of the elements cd / Raptors and sabre-tooths story pt 1 / Beam balance – fulcrum – lever – wheel – cog – friction – moment – gears / Printing press – Gutenberg – computer – astrolabe – Charles Xavier Thomas – Charles Babbage – Herman Hollerith – James Powers – cranes – watches – LED – LCD – clock – clepsydras – Karel Capek / recycling – Cycler waste watch – 3r’s – reduce reuse recycle – Boathouse Farm – Aylesford Newsprint / pendulum / twelfth night – Befana – Epiphany – Gregorian calendar – 12 days lost in 1752 – wassail – fete des rois – galette des rois / make – tidy and sort room – book ends – cd storage / win Read me 2 poem book / RSPCA Animal ark – Young animal carer of the year
December 1999- Vol VI 7 – Look back at 20th century
Pen friends / Millennium Young People’s Congress / Hawaii – Peace Child International – book: rescue 2000 / make wild disguises – Harlequin – scarecrow – clown / Aquila line – Jade calls me an alien / meet scientist Susan Greenfield – skin cells – Faraday – electromagnetism – crystals – x-rays – DNA – Alzheimer’s – Parkinson’s – Royal Institution / Astra – new Planet X – Messenger – Pluto-Kuiper express – Galaxy explorer – genesis – space infrared telescope facility SIRTF / 20th century quiz / win Logiblocs electric city – alarm – lighthouse / 8th treasure hunt pt 2 / Royal Observatory Greenwich – meridian line – international date line / Ruth Mitchell – this moment matters – our world 2000 / win Dorling Kindersley Fantastic Millennium facts book
November 1999- Vol VI 6 – Parliament
Win metal molders and metal magic die cast machines / Dr Annabel – Adam’s infected scab / Young Wildlife Photographer of the year / Barpak Nepal aerial ropeway – straw house / 8th treasure hunt pt 1 / fireworks a/w / giants in opposition – Jupiter Saturn – planets – fact files / explosive science – gunpowder – charcoal carbon sulphur potassium nitrate nitre saltpetre – starburst rocket – Roman candle – dynamite – cannon – Alfred Nobel – peace prize / gunpowder treason and plot – Guy Fawkes / win Britannia 100 great stories from history / make advent calendar and table decoration / pen friends / Lucy Keeler at National Portrait Gallery – Horseman studio camera
October 1999- Vol VI 5 – Mystery and horror
Win Sun-day / Moon-day book / UFOs – aliens – flying saucers – close encounters – lenticular cloud / Man who never came back story / slime recipe – dry ice – phosphorescence – fluorescence / vampires – Dracula – werewolf – bigfoot – ghosts – Tutankhamen Tutankhamun – sharpen razor blade / win sea monkeys / pen friends / toads / make gruesome grub – eyeballs – blood – spider’s web – hand cake
September 1999- Vol VI 4 – Victorian era
Win Educa detective game puzzles / Charles Darwin – giant tortoise – Galapagos / Willow pattern – dowry – pagoda – Staffordshire potteries / Joseph Lister – Michael Faraday – benzene C6H6 – Charles Lyell – Robert Brown – Charles Babbage – Isambard Brunel / make papier mache tray / Neptune – Herschel – Leviathon – Hubble – Kirchoff – Bunsen – Annie Jump Cannon – Uranus – John Couch Adams – Urbain Le Verrier – Johann Galle / win Harry Potter books / Lonely princess story / Great exhibition – Crystal Palace – coal – toilets – railway – Koh-i-nor diamond – policemen – Liverpool docks – Illustrated London News / meet Brian Patten / pen friends
July/August 1999- Vol VI 2/3 – Butterflies/Sport on wheels
Butterfly spotting- a/w for orange tip – common blue – red admiral – peacock – large white – swallowtail – meadow fritillary – brimstone – Camberwell beauty / win Butterfly garden kits / Friends and enemies story pt 3 / colour in the butterfly by choosing true or false / Festivals – Glastonbury / sketching and drawing pt 3 – colour / alphabetic sentences / win Mammoth books / emergency first aid – burns scalds – chemical spills – electric shock – 999 – asthma – bike accident – cuts grazes – fainting – choking – epilepsy – drowning / win Spike and Suzy books / Centre for Alternative Technology – greenhouse gas – renewable energy – sustainable / eclipse – diagram of eclipse – path plotted across Europe and India / win Design a cover / mazes – Marlborough maze at Blenheim – labyrinth – unicursal maze at Groombridge Place / mountain biking – skateboarding – inline skating / physical fitness – flexibility – hand speed tapping – sit ups – squat thrusts – how fit – measure pulse / Aquila line – friend of bullied boy – sharing / Friends and enemies story pt 4 / make things that move – Moon buggy cotton reel and candle tank – milk top racers – land yacht / pen friends / first children’s laureate – Quentin Blake
June 1999- Vol VI 1 – Europe
Win Pink Panther’s passport to peril cd / sketching and drawing pt 2 – tone and shading / mission to Mars – Colin Pillinger interview – Beagle 2 / Children on the Edge – Romanian orphanage – Colin Tourle – eye treatment / Friends and enemies pt 2 / win Boredom busters book / metric measurements – cubits – feet and inches – metres – Delambre and Mechain / CERN – Centre Europeen de la Recherche Nucleaire – ESA – European Laboratory for Particle Physics / make and eat – gazpacho – moussaka – red fruit pudding / ALLEF Association for Learning Languages en Famille / pen friends
May 1999 – Vol V 12 – Music and sound
Win Anthony Ant books / Me and my electric – disabled children tell their stories / climb through a postcard paper cut trick – pull string through your fingers trick – Mobius strip / win One voice and World music cassettes / International Dawn Chorus Day / Friends and enemies story pt 1 / Sketching and drawing pt 1 – outline and contour lines / cling film on basin as drum – slinky experiment – listen through a balloon – lunch box harp – Hoover didgeridoo – nail xylophone – bottle organ / Johannes Kepler – music of spheres / National Centre for Popular Music – Sheffield / Lucy Keeler in Venice – carnival
April 1999- Vol V 11 – Disasters
Pen friends – pen friends in Eastern Europe – Par Avian / geometric smoke rings – tetrahedra – tetrahedron – three sided pyramid ring / impact – collision – asteroid or comet – end of dinosaurs – craters / To the hoot of an owl story pt 4 / Tsunami – tidal wave / Disaster board game – Titanic – Wall Street – smog – hurricane / MV Ocean Defender ex-whaling ship – EarthKind / Aquila line – I have to have packed lunches / win Wildlife mosaic set / meet Elizabeth Laird / Spring science – seeds – germination – bean – tesa – plumule – radicle – cotyledon – bogbean – peat / things to grow – potato planter – bag of nasturtiums / win Wild things books / guide to rabbit breeds from Petplan
March 1999- Vol V 10 – Islands
Pen friends / win swimming kit / island hopping – Raiatea – Bali – Seychelles – Arran – South Uist – Shetlands – Isle of Man – Scilly Isles – Channel Islands – Bahamas – Cayman / Greenland – Inuit / Easter Island – Moai – Orahu – Polynesians / Atlantis – Santorini – Surtsey – coral cays – Scotland rising – south sinking / Print your own card – potato print – carrot print / To the hoot of an owl story pt 3 / Hexagons / win Alpha animals cd
February 1999- Vol V 9 – Cats
Win Simpson’s chess set / tigers / paper batik / Orion – Seven Sisters – Pleiades – supergiants / To the hoot of an owl pt 2 / Bastet – Egyptian cat goddess – Ian – moggy – Persian – cheetah – lion – puss-in-boots / win Tabby in the tun books / DNA – human genome project – genes – chromosomes – double helix – genetic engineering / Dr Annabel – winter health – when you have a cold / reader’s interview with Joe Scarborough artist / Pet Smile Month
January 1999- Vol V 8 – Architecture
Pen friends / RSPCA Animal ark young animal carer of the year / BG Wildlife photographer of the year / nature’s architects – beavers – weaver birds – Cape penduline tit – termites / win Jam Jar Science – taste / Jupiter’s moons – Io – Europa – Ganymede – Callisto / Lewis Carroll’s codes – alphabet cipher / To the hoot of an owl story pt 1 / Topic – arch – tower – brick – cement – wood – glass – pyramid – column / art – stained glass windows from paper and cellophane / Skyscrapers and bridges – suspension – cantilever – keystone / win Scavenger’s tale and Beyond Deepwoods books / Aquila line – veggie diet for wimps? milk allergy / reader’s interview with Sandy Ford architect
December 1998- Vol V 7 – Christmas special
Universal declarationof human rights – United Nations – 1948 – stand up for your rights – Peace Child Trust / win Stand up for your rights book / Quarks – baryons / Science books for Christmas / win Art attack cds / 7th treasure hunt pt 2 / make Christmas cards / Christmas around the world – Mexico – Sweden – America – Canada – Australia – Italy – Switzerland / win Dueling dino dig set / Aquila tv serial / Quarks – beginning of time – Wilson and Penzias / Dr Annabel – BCG vaccination / pen friends
November 1998- Vol V 6 – Cinema / tv and video
Win videos – bag of rice – boy who stopped talking / Wildlife photographer of the year / Meteor shower – Leonids / make moving image toys – flick book – hat thaumatrope spinning disc thingy – night and day discs fixed with paper fastener – moving picture show on kitchen roll tubes with strip of paper wound around them in box / win Blopens / Children’s Film Unit – CFU – stunts – special effects – animation / television – Logie Baird – CRT cathode ray tube – pixels – digital tv – compression – satellite – set top box – cable / 7th treasure hunt pt 1 / Treasure hunters story pt 4 / win Wow science / win Spin the bottle / 100 years of C S Lewis
October 1998- Vol V 5 – Maps
Win Pen pals book / Fungi – make mushroom print / How long is a day? – sundial – star days – solar day and sidereal day / Treasure hunters story pt 3 / Ptolemy’s world map – Ordnance Survey / win Magic dip marbling system / Measuring latitude – poles – longitude – atlas – sextant / Take cuttings – decorate plastic pots / Are you a good citizen? / reader’s interview with Berlie Doherty
September 1998- Vol V 4 – Vikings
Win design Christmas cover / Pen friends / win Polka theatre tickets / Turning sunshine into laughter – Croissant Neuf – green roadshow / Summer triangle – Ring nebula – Dumbbell nebula – the Plough Ursa Major Great Bear Big Dipper – Delphinus – Sagitta / Dr Annabel – asthma / reading runes / Treasure hunters story pt 2 / longship a/w / win Viking news book / get a half-life – radio-carbon dating – isotopes / reader’s interview Lucy Keeler and Terry Deary and Fynnian Mock with snake man Mark O’Shea / Great British pet walk / dingbats
July/August 1998- Vol V 2/3 – Brain/creepy crawlies picnic/summer sports
Pen friends / win Understanding your body book / Summer star gazing puzzle / Win One-day millionaires and Coughdrop calamity books and get your short story published in Aquila / Dr Annabel – I get rashes – my mum’s got a bad back / Curse of Saint Ethel’s story pt 2 / Topic – cortex – corpus callosum – thalamus – pons – spinal cord – cerebellum – baby talk – nerves – memory quiz / science – neurons – dendrites – axon – synapse – neurotransmitter – ecstasy – serotonin / art – sketchbook – abbey ruins – fruit – ball of string – shells – swan – bottle of wine – fishing boat / Children on the Edge in Sarajevo – Bosnia – Colin Tourle – blind school / Shooting stars – Perseids meteor shower – problems of re-entry to atmosphere – tail of comet – photographing stars / Aquila line – my sister feels different and gets blame when innocent / Treasure hunters story pt 1 / picnic – ladybird biscuits – greenfly salad – caterpillar cake / scavenger hunt / win Survival video / Ptarmigan poem / sports from the past – tennis – athletics – cricket – holy days / win Matey bubble bath / Abbey National helping hands
June 1998- Vol V 1 – Weather and climate
Ask Dr Annabel – why when you do headstand your food still goes down – why do we grow – bones – born small – hair – tonsils / Aquila line – friend asked why we didn’t have a car / win Phantom thief book / weather on Mars and Jupiter – temperatures – wind speed – Coriolis force – trade winds / el nino – global catastrophe – Galapagos / meet Michael Fish / readers’ survey / Curse of St Ethel’s story pt 1 / what is in the air – oxygen – sulphur dioxide – acid rain – argon – co2 – nitrogen – liquid air / Beaufort scale – convert kph to mph x5 ÷8 / win weather station Capsela 90 / make weather station – barometer – rain gauge – wind speed – anemometer – weather vane / Jack and Roy beanstalk boys poem
May 1998 – Vol IV 12 – Art
Ask Annabel – white dots on nails / win Nightmare in toy factory cd / how is computer game made / bats – Young Bat Workers Club / Lunar prospector – maria – rays – craters – phases / seven (7) ways to paint a cat ! Joan Miro – Harlequin’s carnival / pigment power – medium – oil – watercolour – tempera – gouache – acrylic / Belly Burkes story / win writer’s books / Walk for Whales and Dolphins WDCS
April 1998- Vol IV 11 – Deserts
Life in Thar desert Rajasthan and Gujarat – camels / Annabel – eczema – dyslexic – how to hypnotise / win Alice in Wonderland party book / Lewis Carroll exhibition / update on Mars – Pathfinder – Lander – Twin Peaks – Imp – Sojourner – Yogi – Mars fact file / Rockhound – Alex Ayling – Rockwatch – bryozoa – blumenbachium globosum / Hagar story / World book day / win All tied up book / Par Avian – YOC / lemon cake and bunny bars – Easter eggs – hot cross buns – simnel cake / Ghostly secret story pt 2
March 1998- Vol IV 10 – Computers and internet
Win Night sky interactive cd / Aquila line – shy little sister cries herself to sleep / win UFO kite / mother’s day quiz / make butterfly card / cyberspace – space web sites / build your own web site / Babbage – Ada Lovelace – Konrad Zuse – Presper Eckert – John Mauchley – smileys / silicon chips – silicon crystals – wafers – Jons Jakob Berzelius / win Internet and World Wide Web for beginners / Beckoning glove story pt 4 / Take a break – get out and about – snowdrop – narcissus – bluebell – primrose – fox – hare – leverets / Ask Annabel – why have hair – different coloured hair – beards – stop growing – eczema and chocolate / calligrams / Ghostly secret story pt 1 / Alice in Escherland
February 1998- Vol IV 9 – Clothes
Ask Annabel – malathion – lice – heart – my parents are always fighting and they make me sick / win membership of Young Friends of British museum – Tut tut – fun with beads – Great Pyramid / new rugs from old rags – rag rugging / Double cluster in Perseus – Auriga – ecliptic – M44 / underclothes – corsets – crinoline – drawers / child labour / Beckoning glove story pt 3 / Clothing – kimono – poncho – sari – parka – kaftan – sarong / Young journalist competition / elements – Dalton – atomic theory – Dobereiner – triads – Newlands – law of octaves – Mendeleeff – germanium – periodic table – copper – carbon – oxygen / win Surya trilogy books / make bird feeder
January 1998- Vol IV 8 – Dogs, wolves
Wolves / Pavlov – amylase – conditioned reflex / win Dog video / win Raleigh Max bike and Glow power items / Dog star – Canis – Sirius – white dwarfs red giants / Annabel – eczema and chocolate and bubble bath – funny bone – sleepy dust – yawn / Beckoning glove pt 2 / Man’s best friend – Kennel Club / Readers’ survey / meet author Andrew Norriss / win Aquila book of tv series / draw cartoon animals
December 1997- Vol IV 7 – Christmas
Hibernation -migration / Children on the Edge in Romania – Colin Tourle – Ceaucescu / art and craft books for Christmas / Perseus and Andromeda / Aquila line – American in London – girls go off with immature boys – friends tease me / Beckoning glove story pt 1 / Christmas past and present – date set 440AD / win Crystal maze cd / make decorations – wreath – horseshoe chain – folded heart / 6th treasure hunt pt 2
November 1997- Vol IV 6 – Dive into the Ocean
Maths – digit flip hollow square with numbers on / win Anatomix board game / Dr Annabel – eyes – why cry – eyelashes – blink – lacrimal gland / Rachel’s dippy doolally year story pt 2 / Oil and water – detergent – crude oil – elements – mercury – emulsion – oil spills – metal pollution / coral – plankton / deep sea diving – submarines – elephant seals / dolphins – porpoises – Vaquita / Saturn fact file / win Stories from the Sea book / 6th treasure hunt pt 1 / meet Aquila the tv serial actors – Ben Brooks – Craig Vye / Lucy Keeler at the Archaeological Resource Centre in York
October 1997- Vol IV 5 – Printing
Dr Annabel – vitiligo / win Book workshop cd / Asteroid belt – Ceres – Kuiper belt / what is paper – make paper – recycle – pulp – alkali – lignin – effluent / Rachel’s dippy doolally year story pt 1 / Diamond sutra – Caxton – Canterbury Tales – Gutenberg – press – Bible – mezzotint – scan – laser – photogravure – etching – lithography – letterpress / How well do you cope – new places change / How do we see things in colour – spectrum – prism – refraction – additive and subtractive colour / win Treewatch pack and membership to Wildlife Watch and Rockwatch / Children’s book week / pig pen code
September 1997- Vol IV 4 – Aztecs
Round the world in 97 – first British pair to circumnavigate the globe in a helicopter / win Never ending stories board game / Mars – Ares Vallis – presidential panorama – Sojourner pics / the Run short story / make Aztec temple / meet Joan Aiken / changing year – leaf colour – evergreens – equinox / Aquila line – two of my friends don’t like each other – I’m being bullied / win AQUILA Christmas stocking / Dr Annabel – snapped or pulled tendon – how much exercise for a 10-year-old girl – how much sleep do I need / Australia – dreamtime – Aborigine – makarrata
August 1997- Vol IV 3 – In the water
Aquila line – my dad died and nobody understands me – everyone else is rotten and even my friends don’t like me – what to do when a teacher cries / win Calligraffiti calligraphy set / water in space – icebergs on Europa – stars to see in August / make your own drink can sundial / win Where’s Wally wonder book / James Fish and the Dijon Stones story pt 4 / make a mobile – Alexander Calder – beach mobile – fun mobile – sound shell mobile wind chime – night mobile / beachcombing / picnic food – lifebelts – sailing boats – lighthouse biscuits – starfish pizza – pebbles – rocks – shark infested custard – prawns and seaweed / Pure or impure – molecules – adding salt affects melting point – purify salt water – distillation – limescale / water sports – swimming – scuba / win Arion and the dolphin books
July 1997- Vol IV 2 – Flight
Article 12 / win Guardians of the greenwood cd / Dr Annabel – I’m a girl with a moustache – why do we get headaches / James Fish and the Dijon Stones story pt 3 / Astra’s trip around the solar system puzzle / Wright brothers – insects – birds – mammals – kite – George Cayley – Otto Lilienthal – Montgolfier / Aerofoil – air pressure – lift – helicopter / Around the world in 97 / win Weirdo’s war books / make rotor / birds – navigation – migration – albatross – environmental protest at runway – Zeppelin / Aquila line – my mum has irritating mannerisms – a boy in my class gets bullied and I don’t want to get involved but I do want to get involved
June 1997- Vol IV 1 – Theatre
Harvey meets Harry Kroto professor of chemistry at Sussex university – C60 – Buckminsterfullerene – Buckyballs – origin of Nobel prize / James Fish and the Dijon Stones story pt 2 / Molecules in space – how to make a Buckyball – what is a molecule – nanotubes / win World of Shakespeare books / design a cover / Upstage downstage prompt proscenium arch flies flats footlights – ancient Greeks – Sam Wannamaker – Globe / Michael Morpurgo and Farms for city children / win Arthur High King of Britain books / Plastic – PVC – polystyrene – polypropene – polyester – low density polyethene – LDP – high density polyethene HDP – experiment to find which plastic something is made from – why recycle / Dr Annabel – my skin goes dry and peels off when I use soap or bubble bath – stitch / Hong Kong returns to China
May 1997 – Vol III 24 – Underground
Word chains / Earth’s crust – volcanoes – earthquakes – convection cells – fault line / Worms – sensitive to bottom C – one worm two sexes / Water vole watch / Living in space pt 2 – keeping clean – relaxing – exercise – work – food – water supply – sleep restraint / James Fish and the Dijon Stones story pt 1 / Underground – soil – rocks – tunnels – caves – crust – mantle – core – humus / meet Michael Morpurgo / Down down down – subterranean world – sewers – Matmata in Tunisia – street children – air raid shelters / win Mind-bending lateral thinking puzzles books / win Sunpower kit / Aquila line – I get teased about being small – Me Mike and Matthew – jealousy / drawing a self-portrait
April 1997- Vol III 23 – Journeys
Synonyms antonyms / Acids and alkalis – indicators – making an indicator solution / Zoo animals on journeys – octopus – flamingo – dolphin – elephant – giraffe – sloth / Four million year journey to Aquila – space race – cold war – gravitational slingshots / Dr Annabel – constipated 12-year-old – anorexic – dyslexic – puffed out / Journey board game / General election / win Talking calculator / win James and the Giant Peach books / make picture frame / Aquila peers at canals / recipe for fruit and oat slice
March 1997- Vol III 22 – Green issue
Greenhouse effect- global warming – make a mini-greenhouse – lemonade bottle cut down and seeds sown in pots / EB reviews Rio earth summit of 5 years previously – Agenda 21 / Hale-Bopp comet of the century – Alan Hale – Thomas Bopp – Sagittarius – what is a comet – draw an ellipse – focus – foci – Halley’s – great comet of 1843 / Aquila line – I get laughed at – inwardly – I’m being used by one friend and helped by another who annoys me – Ronda’s friendship quiz / Tropical rainforests – why they are important – burning rainforest – why do people destroy rainforests – how much is left / Bird man story / Environment bulletin board – Mission 2996 – Wildlife watch – Tidy Britain Group Eco-Schools – Sustrans – Waste watch / win Children’s encyclopedia cd / win Earthways Earthwise poetry book / Hip magazine for children with hearing loss
February 1997- Vol III 21 – Horses
Wordworm’s expressionsto do with the heart / William Harvey – circulation – arteries – veins – Marcello Malpighi – capillaries – take your pulse – how much blood have you? / Furlong – water diving mules – hands unit of measurement / seahorse – Great Barrier Reef – coral / Messier – M31 – galaxies – making new stars – M42 Orion nebula / win Eureka inventor set / win My friend’s a werewolf book / A-Z of horses / Article 12 – UN convention on rights of child / Riding for the Disabled Association / drawing horses
January 1997- Vol III 20 – Money
Philosopher’s stone- alchemist – alchemy – what is chemistry / Ivory poachers – clean water in Zimbabwe / Beyond the Milky Way – what you need for stargazing – find the Great Galaxy in Andromeda – speed of light – light year – what is a galaxy – spiral galaxies – M31 – NGC 205 – NGC 221 – M32 / Dr Annabel – I’m allergic to chocolate – caffeine – carob – serotonin / Midas – Croesus – barter / How important is money to you quiz / meet author Pete Johnson / win money in design a coin for millennium competition / win Stories from the stars book / Aquila line – boy keeps bothering my au pair and my dad has written rude letters to the boy’s dad / make papier mache money pot – money box
December 1996- Vol III 19 – Polar regions
Make plate clock calendar / magnets and poles – magnetic fields – iron filings – bar magnet – fridge magnet – disc magnet – unlike poles attract – like poles repel – make a compass with cork and pins – Earth’s magnetic field – Manx shearwater migration / animals at the poles – polar bear – arctic fox / Northern lights – solar wind – magnetic lava – poles move – aurora australis / Aquila line – how to prepare for exams – I read for too long and haven’t got a partner – I’ve a problem with my mother who shouts a lot and gives my dad high blood pressure / Dr Annabel – exercise gives me pains in the stomach – three types of muscles in body: skeletal visceral cardiac / 20 polar facts / Ghost watchers story pt 4 / make Christmas cards – snowy mountain scene – rooftop scene / win Peter Markey cut-outs Gellidywyll / make Christmas treats – chocolate yule log – biscuits / Secrets of the last continent – Scott – Amundsen – Edward Wilson – Emperor chicks – Henry Bowers – Apsley Cherry-Garrard – Cape Crozier – extraordinary incubation – sketch map of Antarctica
November 1996- Vol III 18 – Toys and games
Homonyms / tangrams – Sz’kwa Chinese game – distich game / Bears – brown bear – koala – black bear – giant panda – polar bear – Inuit – stock exchange / make things move – marble speedster – movement and forces – pantin moving toy jointed limbs on body joined with string – motion – energy – force / Living in space pt 1 – Yuri Gagarin Vostok 1 – L Gordon Cooper Faith 7 – Salyut 1 – cosmonauts – Skylab – Saturn V – astronauts – Mir – Valeri Poliakov – Helen Sharman – Shannon Lucid – Alpha space station – no air no gravity – backbones stretch – Starship Enterprise – Independence Day – Red Dwarf / Dyslexia – Tom Cruise – Albert Einstein – Michael Barrymore – Anthea Turner – Alvar Edison – how to help a friend with dyslexia – centenary year of dyslexia / Ghost watchers pt 3 / win token for Tridias toys / Green board game company / win Atlas adventures game – Roman board game discovered / 5th treasure hunt pt 2
October 1996- Vol III 17 – International issue
Vowels 2 / Tapatan game like mini Kensington – Benjamin Franklyn magic square / UNICEF – 50th anniversary / Life on Mars – meteorite ALH84001 – Mars fact file – drop bean tin into rice experiment / insects – good bad and beautiful / win Cooking with dad book / Dr Annabel – I’m allergic to horses – rash legs and wheezing – how much sleep for 11-year-old boy and what sort of milk / Aquila line – girl at school talks about me – friendship and falling out troubles / Ghost watchers story pt 2 / Colour mixing / Children’s book week / win Thinkin’ things cd / 5th treasure hunt pt 1
September 1996- Vol III 16 – Romans
Consonants /Roman dot to dot – Juvenal and the first speaking clock clepsydra (water clock) / lessons from ancient Rome – extravagant spectacles – Colosseum – Titus – mosaics – Sicily – ostrich entertainment / Around you in September – cuckoo goldfinch acorn cob nut hazel rose hips elderberries bullrush / Julius Caesar code / National astronomy week and eclipses – Neptune – comets Hyakutake – Ariane 5 and Cluster – Kowou French Guyana / Romans in Britain / Ghost watchers story pt 1 / meet Malorie Blackman / win Roman board games / win Great grammar book / Batik paintings / Rija story pt 2
August 1996- Vol III 15 – Holidays
Vowels 1 / Fractals – Koch curve – Mandelbrot set / Dr Annabel – what is acupuncture – thumbs click – crick in neck – knees creak – synovial – spasm – contraction / Aquila’s wildlife notes no. 12 harvest mouse – around you in August – wheat barley oats grasshopper shells / Navigation – make sextant / Holiday adventure board game / Superchalk story / Aquila picnic – banana cake – chicken and pasta salad with fruit – tuna pate – fruit fizz – orange jellies / win prizes in holiday photo competition / Aquila line – I don’t want to go back to school because of my annoying friend – more friendship and falling out bother – girl kicks one under the table and she has never seen her father – my teacher is horrible and has a pet boy / make golden grouse / Rija story pt 1
July 1996- Vol III 14 – Olympics
Olympic motto Citius Altius Fortius swifter higher stronger / calculator solitaire / Olympic games and environment – IOC – host city – EBs world record holders – arctic tern – flea – gibbon – cormorant – cheetah – elephant – ant / Bones – skeleton – wildlife notes no. 11 mole – around you in July – grasses poppy rosebay willowherb feverfew / Jupiter revisited – opposition – Shoemaker-Levy – Galileo – Jupiter fact file / Leavers’ assembly poem by Rachel Dixon / Dr Annabel – do I take enough exercise / I get thirsty when I eat chocolate / Aquila line – my friend’s parents are splitting up / Time – clocks – dripping water clock – candle clock – hourglass – mainspring – GMT / Technology in sport – Adi Dassler – Adidas – trainers – football boots – Chris Boardman – bike – javelin – paper dart – starting blocks / win sports books and Olympic pop-up / moving pictures – zoetrope / Izzy mascot of 96 Olympics Atlanta
June 1996- Vol III 13 – Volcanoes
WW’s suffix machine / Not-so-solid Earth – crust – hot core – moving plates – mountain ranges – ocean trenches – Marianas – experiment eruption – bicarb and vinegar / Wildlife notes no. 10 rabbit – around you in June – honey bees thyme lavender ladybird larva arctic tern / EB timber management – Esso treewatch / volcanoes in space – olympus mons – cold volcanoes – Io Europa Ganymede Callisto / Vulcan – seismic shock – seismometer – geysers – caldera / Winning Wengcheng traditional Chinese folktale story / meet author playwright David Wood / Mount Vesuvius – Pompeii – Herculaneum – Pliny the younger and elder / win tickets to The Witches / make pop-up volcano
May 1996 – Vol III 12 – Poetry
William Wordworm’s Daffodils / Body heat – body temperature – reptiles – calories / wildlife notes no. 9 bank vole – around you in May – bluebells common blue butterfly dandelions ladybirds aphids / recycle – reduce pollution – Frogwatch – adopt a whale – Colt – Baleen whale – Humpback / Sunspots – project image on paper – sunspot minimum – sunspot maximum – prominences – poles reverse every 11 years – magnetic field / Aquila line – bullying – my friend beaten up – girl from another class keeps putting her arm around me and I hate it / Dr Annabel – spots – best fruit and vitamins / Poetry – nursery rhymes – Caedmon’s hymn – Beowulf – pied piper – Shakespeare – Bard of Avon – laureate – anthology – Edward Lear – Hilaire Belloc – Lewis Carroll – Ogden Nash – Old Possum’s Practical Cats – T S Eliot – Auld Lang Syne Robert Burns / Aquila team’s favourite poems / meet poet Michael Rosen / Technology – satellite and cable tv – John Logie Baird – cathode ray tube – CRT – broadband cables – dish – interactive tv – competition: what will we look like in 3000 / win Young poetry pack / Watercolours – flowers – daffodils
April 1996- Vol III 11 – Reptiles/Spring
M. C. Escher – tessellating patterns / Crocodiles – iguanas – snakes – take your temperature / Wildlife notes no. 8 fox – around you in April – cuckoos primroses cowslips frogs / Chernobyl – reactor – nuclear power station – radiation sickness – radioactive dust – Pripyat – Cumbria – Snowdonia – Scotland / Atoms and nuclear reactions – electrons – protons – uranium 235 – caesium – rubidium – fission – fusion – atom bomb – control rods – fuel rods – lunar eclipse / Vertebrates – forked tongue – lizards – turtles – snakes – crocodilians / Personality test – mover and shaker – thinker and planner – sitter and waiter / April fool – Hindu holi – Ghana apoo – Easter – Persephone – Zeus / win prize in reptile competition / make paper tulips
March 1996- Vol III 10 – Castles
Calligrams /recycling / see-saw and trebuchet – levers – equilibrium – fulcrum / wildlife notes no. 7 hare – around you in March – hares lambs brimstone coltsfoot / Search for alien solar systems – Beta Pictoris – 51 Pegasus – pulsars – 47 Ursae Majoris / alien landscape a/w / Dr Annabel – I never have ear wax – wearing back brace – carrying heavy books – verruca – why elderly shrink – osteoporosis – think – brain / Aquila line – mum and dad divorce – choose which parent to live with / Caernarfon – dungeons – motte and bailey – turret – loophole – machicolations / Junk thief story pt 4 / make mother’s day shopping list and reminder pad and pencil / Rubbish – dustbin – rats – maggots – landfill – incineration – RDF refuse derived fuel pellets briquettes / meet author Rachel Dixon / win £20 gift token and Thing in Bablock Dip book / Perspective – draw castle
February 1996- Vol III 9 – Pets
Tangrams / new life form discovered – classifying animal kingdom – vertebrates – invertebrates – phyla – phylum – orders – carnivores – genera – genus – species – symbion pandora / wildlife notes no. 6 badger – around you in February – bulbs trees snowdrops daffodils catkins hazel pussy willow foxes / Environmental concerns – what can we do / Binary stars – Mizar and Alcor – Algol – black hole – centre of mass / 3d pictures / Goldfish – cats – dogs – llama – tarantula – RSPCA / Junk thief story pt 3 / meet author illustrator Tony Ross / pet quiz / Aquila line – bullying / win RSPCA goody bag – young writers’ comp – Smarties book prize / design a cover / Perspective draw a walkman / Giving the Bosnians a home reader’s story
January 1996- Vol III 8 – Food
Fishing in crisis – polluted seas – scarlet nubbly starfish – drift nets – trawler – purse seine net / Nose – smell – scent – receptors – mucous membrane – olfactory hairs / Wildlife notes no. 5 long-eared bat – around you in January – ash buds blue tits great tits coal tits greenfinches peanuts winter jasmine / Zigzag cipher – square cipher – grid cipher / Twinkling – variables – Cepheus – Cepheid – distance to stars – Algol – eclipsing binary / Aquila line – 11 plus – boy annoying – babyish girl lives on farm / Pasta – Marco Polo – yeast – salt – garlic – yogurt / Junk thief story pt 2 / Medieval banquet – table manners – etiquette – reclining – Roman menu – radishes stuffed dormouse figs / win prize for story of a food item / Supermarket technology – scanner – bar code – SelfScan / 4th treasure hunt pt 2 / Curse of the Wacawacadodos reader’s story
December 1995- Vol III 7 – Christmas special
International Children’sConference / Eastbourne / Rio Summit 1992 / Leave it to us / make marbled paper / Leaves – simple – compound – pine needles – chloroplasts – chlorophyll – deciduous – evergreen – looking after a Christmas tree – giant redwood / wildlife notes no. 4 fallow deer – around you in December – hedges brown foliage holly ivy rose hawthorn berries haws hips thrushes blackbirds fieldfares disperse robins / code wheel / Space books for Christmas / Magic flexing Christmas card / Christmas traditions / Good King Wenceslas / Advent – St Nicholas – St Lucia – Christmas eve – Christmas day – St Stephen / meet author Ian Robinson – Rupert Bear – John Harrold – Mary Tourtel / Junk thief story pt 1 / win Rupert annual / 4th treasure hunt pt 1 / Life in the outback Australia
November 1995- Vol III 6 – Puppets
Credit cards – debit cards – Delta – Switch – ATM automatic teller machine cash dispenser – PIN personal identification number – prepayment cards – smart cards / Brent Spar oil platform – North Sea oil rigs – atomic bomb Muroroa atoll – Marianas trench Pacific ocean – mantle – Agenda 21 / Electricity – lighting – oil lamps – shadow theatres – penumbra – umbra / Wildlife notes no. 3 red squirrel – around you in November – Brent geese goose whooper swan Bewick’s swan frogs snails seeds / Mobius strip – plait a cube – cube fold – hexagon fold flexing hexagon / Starwatch UK – Square of Pegasus – light pollution – Royal Greenwich Observatory – street light design – BST – GMT / Puppet workshop – Mel Myland – Punch and Judy / Bullying – Aquila investigates / make junk puppets / Aquila line – girl swears and pulls hair – how to revise for exam / win £5 token name the puppet / make reusable advent calendar
October 1995- Vol III 5 – Myths and legends
Plurals / rivers – Nile – upstream – downstream – from pure mountain stream to stinking lifeless sewer / Astrology – Earth as centre of universe – crystal spheres – Johannes Kepler – Isaac Newton – zodiac / Midas touch – changing materials – alchemy – corrosion – conductors / wildlife notes no. 2 hedgehog – around you in October – blackberries rose hips vitamin c red admiral horse chestnuts conkers sweet chestnuts house martins / Russian multiplication – finger nines – Vedic designs from number squares / Draw faces – expressions – coloured scratch drawings / Thunderbird – Garuda – Fenrir – Dragon – Phoenix – Taniwha – Quetzalcoatl – Unicorn / Pneumatic tyres – Jean Batten – teddy bear – rationing – James Cook born – Yom Kippur – day of Atonement – Divali – halloween – Statue of Liberty – Eiffel / meet Felicity Dahl – Roald – Liccy / win mythology book / Moon prince story
September 1995- Vol III 4 – Ancient Egypt
Multiplication /Nile – delta – meander – Aswan dam – Lake Nasser reservoir – sediment / Mohs’ scale of hardness – cutting stone – diamond – carbide – angle grinder / wildlife notes no. 1 otter / draw cats – transfer drawing / Aquila line – brother roots through bedroom – home schooling – going to new school – Childline / How observant are you questionnaire / stars and pyramids – Great Pyramid – Giza – Richard Proctor – Osiris – Isis – Robert Bauval Orion Mystery / Distortapix / win pyramid book / Mobile phones – videophones
August 1995- Vol III 3 – Holiday special
Games – twenty patience / Down by the seashore – anemone – jellyfish / Antarctic – south pole – Antarctic treaty / Abduction by aliens – UFOs – ET – SETI – The Black Cloud by Fred Hoyle – Trillions by Nicholas Fisk / win £5 voucher for water safety poster / travel games / holiday health guide – bites stings sunshine tummy upset / Aquila line – boy in my class that no-one likes – problem with relationships – fostered child hates foster parents – bully talks loudly near me – advice on starting secondary school / meet illustrator Quentin Blake / picnic recipes – fruit cake – iced tea – stuffed pitta pockets – mini quiches / Kennings – Norse descriptions
July 1995- Vol III 2 – Photography
Light and images – bending light – refraction – lenses – cameras – della Porta – make camera obscura – negatives / Frozen south – Antarctica – emperor penguins – Captain Cook and the Resolution – lichen / Astronomical photography – prism – spectra – star pictures – false colours – bending light – adaptive optics – radio telescopes – x-rays – ultra violet – infra red – radio waves / Aquila line – children take the mickey because I wear a cycle helmet – Lee swears a lot / Junior Masterchef / brief history of photography / An A-Z of fascinating words / meet author Judy Corbalis / win Oskar and the ice-pick book / win fun camera in caption competition / Do’s and don’ts for taking photos – blurred – composition – landscape – still life – portraits
June 1995- Vol III 1 – The garden
i before e / calculator words / night and day – tilt – land of the midnight sun / Bulbs – adventitious roots / win £5 book tokens in wordsearch / Topiary – allotments – famous people’s gardens – Churchill Kipling Beatrix Potter – National Trust – garden in a tray – maze / How confident are you questionnaire / make garden tent – garden game: throw ball or ring into cardboard box – garden dice / Aquila line – I have to wear glasses – I have to wear short trousers – teased about being different: diet clothes name – home education / Games people used to play – Saxons Vikings – Wulfstan’s journey – Alfred the Great – wedlock
May 1995 – Vol II 12 – Spring
Commas / Magnets – make compass – make electromagnets – Earth magnet / Oxfam – emergency relief – development / treasure hunt pt 2 / Edwin Hubble – Mount Wilson – expanding universe – big bang / win £5 make up your own puzzle / spring quiz / make mobile – balancing lamb / Aquila line – starting secondary school – ingredients for a happy school – assembly rap / Dr Anita – brain diagram – wrinkly skin / Reichstag fire – Hitler – Van Der Lubbe – Goring Goering
April 1995- Vol II 11 – Easter/United Nations
Full stops / Insects – locust – blood suckers – tsetse – mosquito / Congruent / Magnet – Magnus Greek shepherd – make compass / make tetra-egg – tetra-egg basket / the UN 50th anniversary – UN quiz / win £10 for finish story comp / Einstein – relative speed – general relativity / Dr Anita – polyunsaturates – sweets – empty calories / Aquila line – rubbers smudge my writing – I don’t like going out at playtime if it’s cold – I like going home early / Treasure hunt pt 1 / Communications – information super highway – satellites – cordless phones – mobile phones – video conferencing – email – electronic mail
March 1995- Vol II 10 – Newspapers
Rotating patterns – geometry – congruent shapes – angles – symmetry / Survival – humans threaten animals – IWC – CITES – extinction of dinosaurs – insect survivors – WW1 flu epidemic / Bacteria and viruses pt 2 – phagocyte – germ / Origin of universe – retrograde motion – Galileo – Copernicus – Kepler – Newton / Aquila line – I don’t like going to school – My teacher is unfair and I’m fed up with it / Newsprint – Acta Diurna – Ti Chau – New York Times – Daily Courant / Are you a good sport questionnaire / Mary Queen of Scots and the Babington plot – secret code / Dr Anita – human digestive system – oesophagus – stomach – I have a lot of ear wax / win On the move science tricks book in design a kite comp / win £10 in news reporter comp / make pasta owl – fabric collage – posters and collages – Picasso – Matisse – Juan Gris / Reflections on 1994
February 1995- Vol II 9 – Computers
Elizabeth I and the Spanish Armada / animal camouflage – hibernation – migration – reproduction / bacteria and viruses – micro-organisms – flagella – cell division – fission – pasteurisation – saprophytes – vitamin K – salmonella typhimuriam – tuberculosis – flu – influenza / pig pen code / Mars – red planet – in opposition – in conjunction – Phobos – Deimos – War of the Worlds – H. G. Wells – Martians – temperature on Mars -60 – make CFCs / maths – four stages in a statistical survey – results of Aquila survey / computer jargon – glossary / make food – high energy spuds – oatmeal biscuits – winter puddings – jelly with a difference / first pen friend club page / Dr Anita – a-z of keeping fit – eating well – feeling good / Aquila line – I tend to daydream – how would you describe a happy school – Helen and I make friendship bracelets to sell in aid of guide dogs / technology used to produce renewable forms of energy – world population – fossil fuels – hydroelectricity – turbines – tides – tidal power – Rance in France – Cardiff and Weston-super-Mare – Salter ducks – underground heating in New Zealand – Reykjavik – Iceland – hot springs – hot rocks – wind power – California – rubbish – clean smoke – what we can do to save energy
January 1995- Vol II 8 – New Year Customs
Air – Venus – composition of air – air pollution – allergies – asthma – carbon monoxide – lead / sound – animal alarm calls – human alarms – animal communication – bird calls – listening devices – Hertz – infrasound – ultrasound – echolocation – bats – dolphins – sonar – radar – x-rays – ultrasonic / estimates – cryptorithm / Venus – our sister planet – phosphorus morning star – Hesperus evening star – temperature on Venus 460 – Magellan probe – greenhouse effect / Aquila line – people call me names – I’d like to write a book / make slippery fish / Hogmanay – Jewish new year – Rosh Hashanah – Chinese new year – Burma – Thailand – Laos – Muslim new year / How strong are you questionnaire / Princes in the tower / Dr Anita – where is the funny bone – what do bones do – what is inside a bone – what is asthma – bronchi – trachea – bronchus – lungs – allergens / technology at work – electric car
December 1994- Vol II 7 – Zoos / Christmas
Helix – helices – pine cones and pineapples – Fibonacci numbers / are zoos cruel / trees – newsprint – making paper – keeping Christmas trees / make Christmas tree card / sound – hear a pin drop – sound waves – experiment to show movement of air molecules / music notation – win making music book / Sartel and the Riddles of Wenceslas pt 2 / following yonder star – three wise men – three kings – Star of Bethlehem / Aquila line – parents sending me to a new school – I’m not a fast worker and never finish tests / Dr Anita’s bones project / technology at work and play – magic – sawing a person in half – escapology – Houdini – Indian rope trick – card trick / Mobius strip – squeeze an egg without breaking it – float an egg half way down a glass of water
November 1994- Vol II 6 – Light
Word chains / mirrors / estimate your rubbish / how to survive in space – spacecraft – spacesuit – rocket pack / Dr Anita – how do we smell – what is sinus – bacteria – bacterial infection / Aquila line – I don’t have the confidence to put my hand up – why do we have to write stories for titles chosen by someone else / light questionnaire / Sartel and the Riddles of Wenceslas pt 1 / technology at work – life under glass – biosphere 2 – Tucson / Arizona – create your own biosphere / make advent calendar / notice of pen friend club coming / gunpowder plot – Guy Fawkes
October 1994- Vol II 5 – Harvest
Questionnaires – statistics – Aquila questionnaire – reader survey / Cycles and recycling – water cycle – carbon cycle – nitrogen cycle – photosynthesis / How to get into space – rockets – jet engine – nozzle – rocket fuel / crystals – minerals – salt – quartz – calcite – diamonds – solvent – solute / finish the story – the mould people / Aquila line – I like birds – my friends keep falling out / Technology at work – tunnels – channel tunnel – TBMs – tunnel boring machines – le Shuttle – Eurostar / Dr Anita – what does a liver do – why do we need a liver – I’d like to be a nurse – I get very very upset when I see thin children on tv / make healthy harvest badges / harvest basket / Win the Usborne illustrated dictionary
September 1994- Vol II 4 – Weather
Spoonerisms / Dream fungus story / the power of the Sun – solar cells – power station in space – solar panels – Solar Challenger – solar towers – solar powered cars / Acids and alkalis – acids in food – indicator – litmus paper – make your own indicator – soil test kit – universal indicator – pH of blood 7.4 / Exploring space – first satellites – Sputnik – Laika the dog – Luna – Yuri Gagarin – Apollo 11 – Neil Armstrong – space stations – Salyut – Skylab – Mir – Space Shuttle – Challenger – probes to other planets – Pioneer 10 – Voyager 2 – Galileo – Ulysses / weather facts / make a solar cooker / Aquila line – I like school but boys tease me about being slow – I’m bullied nearly every day / King Harold – hero or villain – Battle of Hastings 1066 – Duke William of Normandy – Bayeux tapestry / Dr Anita – what good are vitamin tablets – vitamin A – vitamin B – vitamin C – vitamin D – my friend is one of triplets and eats the same as me but never gets fatter / Aquila treasure hunt 1994 pt 2
August 1994- Vol II 3 – Seashore
Soil – earthworms – erosion – soil types / Greek quartet 2 – Boxgrove man / The Odd Fish story / Galileo and his telescope – phases of Venus – Saturn’s rings / seashore facts / William Rufus – William II – 1087 – Orderic Vitalis – Walter Tirel / Dr Anita – why do we need sleep – if you go to bed late you’re grumpy two days later: true or false – what are tears for – I’m fed up because I eat too much. Not only that / but my ear has too much wax / make display case / Aquila line – my school in Holland / I find it hard to do maths investigations / Aquila treasure hunt 1994 pt 1
July 1994- Vol II 2 – Butterflies/summer holiday
Greek quartet 1 – deserts – arid – polar regions – crust – plates – seismograph – continental drift – palaeontology / creepy crawlies – insects – thorax / Julius Caesar code – shift code – pig pen code – pig pen cipher / Jupiter and the great comet crash – Shoemaker-Levy / butterfly quiz – life cycle / projects and ideas for the summer holidays – flower project – calligraphy – needlework – mazes and patterns – sports day – write – start a collection / make holiday folder – snap cards – lotto / Aquila line – I don’t like difficult maths / Dr Anita – why do we hiccup – is it important to do exercise – why do we need toothpaste – bones project / Mystery of missing body – Sutton Hoo – Redwald
June 1994- Vol II 1 – Sporting matters
Energy – respiration – breathing rate – pulse rate / Greek quartet – fire 2 – Great Fire of London – fighting fire – matches / Sunflower seeds – Leonardo Fibonacci sequence / Solar system – elliptical orbits – asteroids – comets and meteors / Sports quiz – Olympic Games – Baron Pierre de Coubertin – Olympic motto – Father Henri Didon / Sartel and the case of the teddy bear inheritance 2 / make Aquila binder / make sports game / Dr Anita – ingredients – food additives – e numbers – is salt bad for us – bones in the hand – names of bones / captive breeding – Chia-Chia giant panda Chi-Chi / Aquila line – I move schools a lot and am very clever and have no friends – how to make friends / Who discovered America – Zichmni – Zeno – Sinclair voyage – 1492 Christopher Columbus
May 1994- Vol I 12 – Flowers
Why do plants have flowers – parts of a flower – pollination – Linnaeus – Carl Linne – Linnaen system of classification / Greek quartet – fire 1 / polyominoes / the Moon – moonlight – eclipses / Sartel and the case of the teddy bear inheritance 1 / make a flower press – make lollipop stick picture frames / Dr Anita – what is asthma – why do we get stomach aches / Aquila line – my school in Rome – two of my friends don’t like each other – I have two friends: one has gone to New Zealand and the other plays with someone else / Robert Louis Stevenson / Monkey business story by Danielle
April 1994- Vol I 11 – Animal young
Division / Water – power and pollution – water wheels – turbines – Aswan Dam – plankton / Rough and smooth – friction – studs and spikes – ball bearings – lubrication – streamlined / Dying stars – big bang – red giants – supergiant – white dwarfs – supernova – neutron star – pulsar – black holes / Dr Anita – I think I’m getting fat – calories – what to do for burns – why do we need air / young animals quiz / make animal dominoes – make minibeast pot / Robin Hood / Animals behind bars – cruel or kind / Aquila line – bullying – I get bored in class / Aquila flag competition
March 1994- Vol I 10 – Philately
Aquila’s African fish eagles / eggs thrown from helicopter / science pulls and pushes – force – turning effect / tangrams / how a star is born – nebula – Great Andromeda Galaxy – Milky Way – Orion nebula – Aldebaran – Trapezium – open cluster – Pleiades – Seven Sisters – Sirius dog star – gravity – mass / Dr Anita – headaches – nosebleeds – healthy eating / stamps / how good a friend are you questionnaire / Greek quartet – water – Nile – Huang Ho – Phoenicians / make mother’s day concertina book – spider kite / Aquila line – I’m teased for being brown – racism – trouble spelling / make flying Aquila
February 1994- Vol I 9 – Space/Air
Gravity – pull of the earth – mass and weight / 999 emergency / greenhouse effect – ozone layer – CFCs – chlorofluorocarbons – global warming – troposphere – stratosphere / Dr Anita – immunisation – digestion – stomach acid – hospital wards / space puzzles / Sartel and stamp robbery pt 4 / Astra first introduced – getting started in astronomy – binoculars – magnification – aperture – telescopes – galaxies – light years / Aquila’s eagles / Aquila line – I read too much – I live in Italy and have too much homework / make Valentine’s day card – surprise Valentine’s day card
January 1994- Vol I 8 – European community
Napier’s rods – multiplication / mystery of light – white light – spectrum – spinner – coloured cellophane on viewing box – filter / Dr Anita – breakfast – squint – common cold / story by Merlin – lie that turned again / Greek quartet – air / braille alphabet / Euro quiz / Sartel and stamp robbery pt 3 / make space rocket – monster mask / Helen Keller / Aquila line – teacher spies on boy – friend walks away and I’m called names / save our ancestors – apes
December 1993- Vol I 7 – Christmas
Story by Merlin – galactic observer / light and colour – spectrum – retina – Isaac Newton / maths – study of patterns / Morse code / Square Deal for Earth board game / Dr Anita – muscles – yawning – being a doctor / Sartel and stamp robbery pt 2 / Aquila treasure hunt pt 2 / Aquila line – national curriculum – times tables / travel writing competition / flags / make stand up calendar – make Christmas decorations
November 1993- Vol I 6 – Animals
Suffix roulette / water – surface tension – water pressure – siphon / story by Merlin – Magic of Bonzo / Square Deal for Earth – people – population growth – Thomas Malthus – birth rate / make kaleidoscope – bouncy pup / animal puzzles / Sartel and stolen stamps pt 1 / Aquila treasure hunt pt 1 / Dr Anita – aerobics – vegetarians – wearing glasses / Aquila line – worried about going up a form – how to make stories longer
October 1993- Vol I 5 – Water
Story by Merlin – crumpled note / water – as solid – as gas – ice – steam – humidity / Square Deal for Earth – poverty – Brandt Report / Aquila line – my friend lies – too much prep / water puzzles / have you got what it takes to be a detective / make crazy cone mobile – surprise card / Dr Anita – can’t get to sleep – are crackers good for you – are sweets bad for you – smoking – lungs – cilia / reflections of an oak tree
September 1993- Vol I 4 – How green are you/new school year
Story by Merlin – grateful carp / parts of a cube / Dr Anita – tongue – eyes – eye socket – pulse / Square Deal for Earth – profit – ivory / Aquila line – hate writing stories – can’t concentrate – I get bored with people / Green questionnaire / food – cooking – quick pizzas – pitta pockets – banana milk shake – roly poly sandwiches / heat – convection – radiation – thermos flask / make popping Aquila – Aquila jack-in-the-box – make photo frame
August 1993- Vol I 3 – Fish
Story by Merlin – squirrel for a day / Cryptorithms / daisy code / make personal organiser – tidy box / Square Deal for Earth – pollution – contamination spoiling biosphere – poisonous harmful substances – tar – lung function – cilia – nicotine – carbon monoxide – toxic waste – nuclear waste / Aquila line – organising time / holiday projects – make door knob hanger – make bookmarks – scavenger hunt / heat – conduction / Dr Anita – sweat – arterioles – capillaries – skin diagram – breathing hard – exercise – ATP (adenosine triphosphate not spelt out in magazine) – pins and needles – nerves
July 1993- Vol I 2 – Birds
Story by Merlin – white pigeon / code – 8 places along / Aquila line – I get bored and have no friends – books by Judy Blume and I’d like to write books / birds project competition / make chess board – Olli tetrahedron animal / EB Earth Summit – natural disasters – man-made disasters – global warming treaty / how well does your friend know you – how well do you know your friend questionnaires / photosynthesis – pond weed experiment / Dr Anita – fish allergy – allergies – television in the dark – short-sight – long-sight – shortsighted – longsighted – wearing glasses / your body – true or false / If I was in charge of my school
June 1993- Vol I 1 – Trees
Who are we – characters introduced as join the dots puzzles / story by Merlin – forlorn tree / how to solve problems / Julius Caesar code / Aquila line – I get bored – I love reading / make talking bookmark – tidy ups – desk tidy / how well do you know yourself questionnaire / how plants grow – mineral salts – nitrates – phosphates – potassium / Dr Anita – chips bad for me – breakfast cereal fortified with iron – ingredients – nutritional information – Earth’s axis – seasons – orbit – whales / Wishing dragon story pt 1 of 4
These early issues contain much material rehashed in subsequent magazines
1993 -Issue 4 – Courage
Aquila line – I hate writing stories – I can’t concentrate and I get bored / story by Merlin – galactic observer / food / how to solve maths problems – cubes / Dr Anita – allergies – fish allergy – sweat / Envir (EB) – your world – Aquila and Envir discuss Square Deal for Earth: profit / photosynthesis explained by Boffinovski / make Popping Jake – photo frame / Helen Keller / family group crossword / parents’ page
1992 -Issue 3 – Persistence/Trees
Aquila line – I’m a slow writer and get interrupted – I get bored with people / story by Merlin – forlorn tree / Dr Anita – shortsightedness – tv in the dark / your world – Square Deal: Aquila and Envir discuss pollution / child’s story – gained a friend / how do plants grow – Boffinovski / make tidy box – personal organiser / parents’ page
1992 -Issue 2 – Birds
Aquila line – homework takes too long – organise time – Judy Blume / story by Merlin – squirrel for a day / Dr Anita – breakfast cereal fortified with iron / heat – convection and radiation / your world – Earth Summit in Rio / family crossword / parents’ page
199X -Issue 1 – ?
No examples extant.
