Spring Camp 2026

Question, explore and experiment your way to a science-packed, wonder-filled SPRING

Each day, your future scientists will explore a theme that could take them from the microscopic worlds of chemistry and biology, up through the invisible fields of forces and energy, and out to the astronomical realms of planets and stars. Through jaw-dropping demonstrations and mind-blowing experiments, they will get hands-on in a way that will leave them with a thorough, conceptual understanding and a lifelong love for Science.

Kids will be split into similarly-aged groups that will work their way through the day’s activities at a level best suited for their ability. Some will have their curiosity sparked, others will have it nurtured and fuelled, and everyone will have so much fun, they'll never want to leave!

All kids need to bring is a small, healthy, nut-free snack and plenty of curiosity!

Sign up now using the Online Registration Portal below

Please note:

• All prices are exclusive of VAT

• There will no camp during Eid, and you will refunded for the missed day on a pro rata basis.

• A Sibling Discount of 10% is automatically applied to the total when signing up two or more children for the week.

• First 20 people to sign up using the code SC20 before the 28th of February get an additional 20% off their total.

Issue 6 | Winter 2026

As we get ready to celebrate the holy month of Ramadan, please note that the timings of our weekday afternoon classes will change. We are still waiting for a few schools to confirm their timings, but these classes will be earlier. Once times are finalised, we will communicate them directly to enrolled students.

COOKING UP SCIENCE

Milk, our favourite culinary emulsion, is also great at demonstrating why the states of matter are so important in cooking. Blend cream, its richer byproduct, with sugar, your favourite flavours, and a generous dash of liquid nitrogen to speed things up, and you’ve got the creamy solid we love called ice cream. Add the same cream to molten chocolate, and turn it into a syrup that will stay liquid when drizzled onto our ice cream. Finally, trap loads of tiny bubbles of gas into the remaining cream, and top off your dessert with a light, airy whipped cream.

PLANET EARTH, ANIMATED

As far as we know, water is the real stuff of life. It is the one thing that all life on this planet needs, so much so that scientists believe that the best place to look for extraterrestrial life is on other worlds with water. But what is it about water that brings life to our planet? By exploring the solubility of various chemicals in water, we will discover why it is the “universal solvent”, and one that is particularly great at dissolving the chemicals we depend on. Then, once dissolved, we will see how water allows these chemicals to take part in the chemistry of life, just as it allows us to react up expanding balloons of gas and liquids that change colour at will!

RAMPANT REACTIONS

For a chemical to take away electrons, another one has to be willing to give them up. And to lose electrons, we need a chemical to accept them. So most reactions are really a mixture of reduction & oxidation, and these redox reactions can be downright magical. By carefully adjusting the recipe for the Iodine Clock reaction to control the rate of redox, our chemists will concoct a clear potion that will turn pitch black on their command!

Issue 5 | Winter 2026

Nothing new to report from the Lab, except for all the exciting learning journeys we have in store for the kids this week! Keep reading to find out what they are…

COOKING UP SCIENCE

There is no emulsion more important to our diets than milk. Unlike other mammals, most humans consume it far into their lives. It is such an important part of our diets that our dairy-farming ancestors even found ways to extend the short shelf life of this emulsion of water, fats, protein and sugars. This week, we will break down this emulsion just as they did to make a range of dairy products. We will use acid to make mouldable plastic that won’t be appetising to be considered cheese. By shaking all its fat together, we will churn our own butter. And by adding some helpful bacteria, we will get it to “spoil” in just the right way to make creamy yoghurt.

PLANET EARTH, ANIMATED

Life may never have been possible on Earth had it not been for our atmosphere. It contains the oxygen that large lifeforms need to release energy, just like the flames we will light and suffocate. It also has just the right amount of heat-trapping carbon dioxide, a gas we will use to extinguish any flames that get out of hand, which keeps our planet’s temperature just right. But most importantly, it pushes down on us with pressure. Once we use this atmospheric pressure to karate chop rulers and suck candles into flasks upon columns of water, we will use a vacuum chamber to show what life would be like without air. Cold boiling water and exploding marshmallows await!

RAMPANT REACTIONS

For all the thieving chemicals like oxygen that like to steal electrons, there are generous ones that love to give up their electrons. This Reduction can change chemicals in spectacular ways. We will make silver appear out of “water” to coat our test tubes before we make colour disappear altogether. With the help of glucose, a reducing sugar, we will turn a blue dye-filled bottle colourless right before our eyes. But it gets better! Shake the bottle, adding some oxidising oxygen back into the mix, and watch the dye materialise out of thin air.

Issue 4 | Winter 2026

Nothing new to report from the Lab, except for all the exciting learning journeys we have in store for the kids this week! Keep reading to find out what they are…

COOKING UP SCIENCE

Getting water and oil to mix is impossible. Since water is polar and oil is nonpolar, the two most frequently used liquids in our kitchens refuse to play nice. But there are chemicals out there, like soap, that bridge the divide and bring these two closer together to create an emulsion. Now, no one wants their food to taste like soap, so this week, we will test out far more appetising emulsifiers like starch, egg, mustard, and honey. Then, using these, we will whip salad dressings and pasta sauce into stable emulsions full of flavour.

PLANET EARTH, ANIMATED

We live on a thin crust of solid rock floating on a vast ocean of magma, heated by the incredibly high temperatures of our iron-rich core. The energy welling up from these depths is what drives the changing surface of our planet. This week, we will discover how fossils showed us that the continents drift on their tectonic plates, and, with the help of chocolate powder, crackers, and icing, how the movement of these plates causes earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, as well as creates mountains and new land. Before we head for the surface, using electricity and iron, we will explore how the planet’s roiling centre gives rise to a lifesaving planetary magnetic field.

RAMPANT REACTIONS

All of chemistry comes down to the humble electron. This subatomic particle - tinier than even the infinitesimal atom - drives chemical change. Some chemicals even go so far as to steal them from others in search of stability, and one chemical has such a bad rap for doing this that we name this subatomic theft after it. Oxidation will set our lab ablaze this week as we get fuels in close contact with oxygen. With a little kick of energy to set things off, we will make iron dazzle with rust, flasks whoosh with fire, and ignite a sprinkle of seeds into dazzling flames.

Issue 3 | Winter 2026

We are giving out free classes!

Refer our Modules to a friend, and we will give you a free class off your next package when they sign up for the term.

While we are at it, we will give a free class to your friend too!

COOKING UP SCIENCE

Heat is such an integral part of cooking that you’d be hard-pressed to think of a culinary example where there was no heat involved. Not only does it make food easier to digest, but it also opens up a whole new world of flavours, aromas, colours, and textures. This week, we will turn up the heat as we transform sugar into caramel and then use the Maillard Reaction and a few amino acids to toast up the perfect grilled cheese sandwich. Finally, we will use heat and other chemicals to denature proteins and “poach” some eggs to go with it.

PLANET EARTH, ANIMATED

As lava cooled, these new lands shook under the barrage of asteroid impacts that plagued our young planet. Nowadays, the Earth mostly shudders for another reason (a reason we will explore next week), and it is these more modern earthquakes that have allowed scientists to peer right down to the core of our planet. However, before we delve any deeper, we should ensure our homes can withstand the next seismic shift. Using nothing but sticks and marshmallows, our would-be engineers will have to construct a tower that reaches for the sky while we shake the ground beneath it with our drill-powered earthquake simulator!

RAMPANT REACTIONS

Now that we can tell our acids and bases apart, it’s time to neutralise them. Mixing one with the other produces a salt, water, and a more neutral solution - handy if you have a spot of heartburn and even handier if you need to measure the concentration of an acid or base. After running a few tests to select the right indicator, our chemists will turn detective! They will perform a titration - a carefully carried out neutralisation with an acid of known strength - and find out the strengths of some mystery bases.

Issue 2 | Winter 2026

Thank you for the great response to our first newsletter of the term!

Going forward, we will be posting these at the start of each week. This will give you a sneak preview of what your kids will be learning in the days to come and provide you with time to prepare for an enthusiastic science chat with them on the drive home.

So here's what we have in store for your future scientists this week...

COOKING UP SCIENCE

Kitchens may not be the first place that comes to mind when looking for crystals, but our cupboards are full of them! Sugar, salt, and even ice are crystals hiding in plain sight, and the first of these is perfect for serving up a mouthwatering treat. After examining what makes a crystal a crystal by comparing these household ones to their geological counterparts, we will explore solubility to concoct a supersaturated syrup from which we will grow our own rock candy - a tooth-decayingly big, single crystal of sugar on a stick.

PLANET EARTH, ANIMATED

The Earth was far from idyllic in its younger days. The heat from all those collisions that amassed our planet was so immense that our world wasn’t much more than a molten ball of rock. Even if a little patch of it managed to cool into solid ground, the next volcanic eruption wasn’t too far behind to melt it back into a liquid. So this week, we will explore the volcanoes that once dotted our land using chemistry. With the help of vinegar, baking soda, and peroxide, we will cause eruptions that are far safer yet no less spectacular!

RAMPANT REACTIONS

Now that we know a chemical reaction when we see one, it’s time to get reacting! Acids and bases are notorious chemicals, and neutralisation is a surefire way of blunting their danger. But what exactly are they, and how can we tell them apart? This week, our chemists embark on a journey across the pH scale, learning about proton donors and acceptors.  Using red cabbage to dye kitchen towels, we will create our own pH paper and compare it to store-bought stuff as we test the acidity (or alkalinity!) of household chemicals.

Issue 1 | Winter 2026

Welcome to the first newsletter of the term!

Each week, you will find a short write-up on each Module’s lessons so that you can have some great science chats with your future scientists.

You will also find news about important upcoming events to keep you in the loop on what’s going on at the Lab.

We hope you find it fun, informative, and helpful!

COOKING UP SCIENCE

Before we don our chef hats and cook up a storm, it would be good to know what food even is in the first place. Are they calories - those pesky things all the most tempting foods seem to be full of? And what about those so-called nutrients? How do we get more of those? Last week, we broke down foods and discovered the chemicals that make them up. By rolling up our sleeves and getting chemical, we added reagents and watched the colours change to reveal the sugars, starches, proteins and fats that build up our bodies and sustain them.

PLANET EARTH, ANIMATED

Our time-travelling adventure through Earth’s long history started at the very start - not with the formation of our planet, but with the beginning of the universe as we know it. While our Big Bang was a liquid nitrogen-fuelled explosion of fog rather than the colossal expansion of space that began 13.8 billion years ago, it nevertheless gave us the momentum to explore how gravity spent the next 9 billion years sculpting matter into generation after generation of stars and planets. Then, with the help of our giant trampoline, weights, magnet balls, and marbles, we put in orbit our very own planets around a sun and set in motion our brand new Solar System.

RAMPANT REACTIONS

Chemical reactions can build up chemicals, break them down, and transform them in jaw-dropping ways, so you’d think we would recognise them when we see them. No one will mistake something as mundane as ice melting as a chemical reaction, but what if it’s dry ice? Surely, all those clouds of fog are giveaways of some chemical magic! Or what about the fountains of fizz when Mentos and cola meet? Last week, our chemists investigated whether these glorious reactions made any new chemicals or were they simply physical reactions in cunning disguise?

Issue 13 | Autumn 2025

That’s us for the term!

Thank you so much for giving us the chance to share some science and wonder with your future scientists. We have loved teaching them and can’t wait to do it again soon.

Until then, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

If January is too long to go without some science and wonder, join our Winter Camp by clicking here.

SCIENCE BEHIND THE WAND

Even in winter, Glacius, the freezing spell, would be really handy in Dubai, but plain old refrigeration has already worked wonders in cooling the desert. While spraying compressed air cans that cooled in our hands, we learnt how pressured refrigerants are used to chill everything from rooms to food. But it was the freezing air that came out the other end that let us cheat the laws of thermodynamics and make things really cold! By rapidly expanding pressurised gas, we made clouds in bottles and even froze carbon dioxide. At -80 degrees, this dry ice was perfect for creating enough billowing, magical fog to celebrate our graduation from the wizarding world of science.

MYTH BUSTERS

With so many myths and so little time, we end the term with a bunch of myths you don’t need a lab to debunk. Can you fold paper in half more than seven times? You sure can! Just ask Britney Gallivan, the high-schooler who not only worked out the formula for this but also holds the world record for most paper folds. Does air moving around a wing really want to reach the end at the same time? Nope. And, as our paper planes showed, there’s a lot more to flight than just Bernoulli’s principle. Does water drain clockwise in the Northern hemisphere? While there may be a tendency for this, you can easily overcome the Coriolis Effect and make water drain whichever way you like, as we did in our tornado bottles. Is the Earth round? Yes!!! Just ask Eratosthenes, who used nothing but a shadow to prove this more than 2000 years ago!

PERIODIC PIONEERS

Unlike most of the elements we have met this term, the larger, heavier ones at the tail end of the Periodic Table are ones you wouldn’t want to see up close. At least not without a few inches of lead in the way. With such large nuclei, their atoms are prone to radioactive decay, breaking down into smaller elements and a whole bunch of DNA-damaging energy and particles. Since even Googling where we could find some of these elements would put us on some watchlist somewhere, we recreated their toxic glow by shining UV light on our fluorescein potions, before breaking down luminol with some bleach to end the term basking in its ethereal light.