CHILDREN from Steeton Primary School made their first-ever visit to a science lab thanks to a team-up with University Academy Keighley.

Ninety pupils from years five and six travelled to the school at Beechcliffe for a day of hands-on science using the academy’s hi-tech facilities.

UAK spokesman Shirley Cooke said: “For many of the students it was their first time in a science lab and after a safety talk they had a lot of fun experiencing the apparatus.

”Academy staff were extremely impressed with the behaviour of the primary students, their resilience in trying new tasks and their enthusiasm for science.”

The youngsters took part in lessons with academy staff to investigate the effects of acid on metals and plot the cooling curve of stearic acid.

Shirley said: ”These lessons gave students an opportunity to learn some new skills such as recognising the meniscus of a liquid in order to measure accurately, handling unfamiliar equipment and solutions, observing closely, recording the effects of the experiments, and presenting their findings in graphs and tables.

”Students were also given a demonstration of the ‘squeaky pop experiment’; a technique used to test for the hydrogen gas being produced by metal reacting with hydrochloric acid.”

In the afternoon students designed and built towers using only newspaper, dried spaghetti and marshmallows, gaining awards for tallest and strongest towers.

Shirley added: “The activity helped the youngsters explore structural forces, such as compression and tension, as well as develop their analytical skills by testing and developing their ideas.

“There was a three-way tie for the strongest, each being able to hold 400g. The tallest tower was just over 90cm in height.”