Have you played with one of these? Photo credit: Science World Vancouver 2008 by Gord McKenna (License)

Name: Judith

Age: 53

Occupation: Teacher

From: Wendover

Object: Van de Graaff generator

Story: In my physics class we all sat in a circle holding hands. I don’t remember who was lucky enough to touch the generator but I can picture now the white blond hair of Joey standing on end at the far end of the line. How could that happen? Amazing!

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Age: 64

Occupation: Architect

From: Wendover

Object: Sound/light transmitter/receiver

Story: I set up a light beam connected to a tape recorder and has a lens and phototransistor on the other end of the school laboratory. Everyone was fascinated that sound could be transmitted on a beam of light and that interrupting the beam of light made sounds. Opto electronics in 1967! I should have gone into science not architecture!

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Did you try this at school too? Photo credit: shoots by Mycatkins (License)

Name: Sophia

Age: 5

From: Bicester

Story: We took some cress seeds. We had two groups in the light and two groups in the dark. One of the groups in the light and one in the dark got watered. The group that was in the light and had water grew. The group in the light without water grew but it was yellow. The groups in the dark didn’t grow.

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Age: 21

Occupation: Student

From: Surrey

Object: Crystal Growing

Story: At school we grew crystals in chemistry. I loved watching all the different formations that grew.

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Age: 7

Occupation: School

Object: Flower growing

Story: At school I planted a seed into a plant pot and watered it every day. It grew into a sunflower.

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Colour Photograph of Part of a Flower Bed, by Sarah Angelina Acland, c.1915 (Inv.18849)

Name: Isabelle

Age: 7

Occupation: School

From: Guildford

Object: Beanstalk

Story: In reception I planted a beanstalk seed and I watered it every day until a small stalk popped out of the ground. The next day the stalk had grown a tiny bit more than the last day. Every day it grew a tiny bit more until beans grew out if the stalk and I got to take the beanstalk home.

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Compound Monocular Microscope (Inv. 35972)

Name: Mallainee

Little daphnia under a microscope. Photo credit: Daphnies by Thomas Bresson (license)

Age: 22

From: Toowoomba, Australia

Occupation: Teacher

Object: Microscope

Story: I was using a microscope to examine the heart rate of daphnia when the daphnia released its eggs and gave birth in front of 20 year 12 students. Needless to say they were very excited to reuse the daphnia for their population unit.

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Gauze Top Bunsen Burner, c.1874, (Inv. 45602). Who else used Bunsen Burners similar to this when heating things at school?

Name: Priyam

Age: 12

From: London, UK

Object: Jelly babies

Story: We did screaming jelly babies at school – we added potassium chlorate, a heated substance, to the jelly babies and they turned a lilac colour and screamed and then blew up.

Mmmmm, tasty. Photo credit: jelly babies by Sam Greenhalgh (license)

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Ted and his wife.

Name: Ted

Age: 56

From: Sevenoaks, Kent, UK

Object: Locusts

Story: To illustrate the reproductive system and cycle our science teacher showed us how locusts bred. There was a transparent case in which you could observe the various stages of the reproductive cycle from the locust laying the eggs right up to the emergence of the baby locusts. We dissected them as well to understand how the bodies of an insect was constructed into the 3 parts and also watched them mating before laying the eggs. It was no wonder that biology was my favourite science subject, as an unusual was of teaching it has left an impression on me that I have not forgotten.

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Émile and his microscope.

Name: Émile

Age: 6

From: Oxford, UK

Object: Microscope

Story: When I was at school doing P.E. I felt something crawling on my chin, I smacked it because I thought it was a spider, then I felt a shot of pain. It was a wasp! Then the sting was so painful I screamed. My teacher took me to the staff room, she got some ice that I put on the sting. My teacher pulled the sting out and we put it in a cup and I took it home. Then we put the sting under the microscope at home. It was black and it had red sticky stuff coming out of it. I think it might have been blood.

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