Open evening inspiration

Open evenings in the science department are often the most exciting and awe inspiring part of a tour of a year 6’s potential new school.

There are a huge variety of demonstrations you can do on an open evening, but it can be tough to narrow down to just a few. Our in house technicians have chosen some demonstrations which are perfect for science department open evenings

What is the purpose of an open evening?

Open evenings exist to entice prospective year 7 students to want to study at the school; whilst giving their parents or guardians the confidence that a well rounded education with good academic results is available to their child.

Open evenings should introduce the science department team, showcase the science facilities and ultimately, inspire a life long love of science.

What should I consider when planning an open evening?

First things first, consider the health and safety of your visitors.  

• Open evenings pose a unique challenge. The visitors are in an unfamiliar setting, the volume of visitors in transit, plus their behaviour may not be as normally experienced for a class of children (or have-a-go parents and guardians).
• Review all risk assessments to incorporate the number of inexperienced visitors and any other specific risks for the evening.
• Visitors should only take part in, or have hands on experience of, activities with minimal risks
• Cordon off any demonstration areas and have crowd control plans in place.
• Ensure adequate and appropriately sized PPE for all visitors eg eye protection.

A couple of security considerations too

• Think about security of high value or high risk items such as chemicals, which could be stolen.
• Never leave an empty lab unlocked or unsupervised.

Now think about how the activities, which could be hands on, demonstrations, or static displays:

• Do the activities reflect the curriculum and the activities your school offers? You should not oversell or misrepresent your science department.
• If using students to do the demonstrations, ensure that they are trained, have written instructions, know to report problems immediately; and are supervised by someone from the science department.
• Will the planned activities divert away from the usual running of the school science department on the day and the day after?
• Do you need to ask your team to work overtime, or make arrangements for dependents?
• Do you need a rota for science teachers to be present? They may have other responsibilities for the open evening.

Which activities should I do?

Aim to showcase some activities from each area of science:

For Biology open evenings, we recommend microscopy work such as

• Viewing daphnia or prepared slides under a compound microscope.
• Taking a close up look at everyday items under a stereo microscope.
• Making onion cell slides.
• Explore micro-organisms on a moss safari.

You could also take a look at dissection demonstrations; or have some field studies equipment available for prospective students to take a look at.

Some of our favourite Chemistry open evening activities include

• Investigating acid and alkali indicators by extracting natural indicators from fruit, vegetables, flowers.
• Testing household substances with universal indicator.
• Flame tests demo.
• Simple chromatography.
• Introduction to Bunsen burners; learning about the parts and safe use of the burner.

There is a huge range of Physics open evening ideas, our favourites are

• Simple circuits using our new KS3 Basic Electricity Kit (BEK).
• A science toys circus, with various toys to demonstrate Physics concepts.
• TSA (Time Speed Acceleration) and reaction timer is great for interactive fun.
• A wave demonstration using a power signal generator and vibration generator.

Get advice about open evening activities

If you have any questions about setting up demonstrations for open evening, please contact our Technical Support Team via techsupport@philipharris.co.uk