Get Ready for British Science Week 2025

Holding a science week is a brilliant way to get more science into the busy primary curriculum. With a whole week devoted to the subject, or even a day, children can really focus on investigative skills and showcase their learning to friends and family. For tips on how to plan and run a Science Week, in general read our blog on planning whole school science events.  

Activity Packs 

British Science Week publishes two packs with activity suggestions: one for Early Years, which is also really useful for 5 – 7 year old children, and a pack for 5 – 12 year olds. There is a poster competition linked to the theme that children can enter. 

You could focus on how plants and animals change and adapt to their surroundings to survive, or you could focus on how people, as well as plants and animals, need to adapt to the climate crisis. It is also a good opportunity to look at how our scientific understanding changes overtime. 

Plant adaptations 

Early Years children could learn about dandelions with the activity What Just Happened? Yellow weeds. In early spring, dandelions are a vital for insects because their nectar is one of the only food sources around. Later, their feathery seeds provide food for birds. Get the children looking closely at dandelions, observing how they change and understanding their importance to other animals. There are lots of other What Just Happened activities that are also suitable for Science Week, why not take a look? Older children could use the Odd One Out Three Weeds to discuss dandelion adaptations. 

Children could also discuss the Big Question Why don’t all plants look the same? and the Have You Ever Noticed a plant growing in the cracks in the pavement? before going outside to explore plants to see how they are similar and also very different. The Odd One Out Prickly Plants and the Zoom In, Zoom Out Orange and Waxy look at plant adaptations in more detail. 

Animal adaptations 

Younger children could explore camouflage with the Have You Ever Found it difficult to spot an animal because of its colour? (older children could use Amazing adaptations) or bird migration with Have You Ever Seen lots of birds flying together across the sky? There are lots of suggestions for science enquiry in the Take it further. Use the Problem Solver to get children making Bird feeders. They could record which birds visit the bird feeders and when they visit during the day. They could also investigate whether they all like the same food by filling different feeders with different bird foods. 

The Odd One Outs Smile please, Funny bones  and Perfect pinchers are just three of the many activities that focus on animal adaptations. Hedgehogs are under threat in the UK, use the Problem Solver House hunting hogs to learn about hedgehogs and how to make the local environment hedgehog friendly. 

Changing human behaviour 

Use Explorify’s What’s Going On Flush it away? to investigate what can we flush down the toilet apart from pee and poo. Many materials like wet wipes do not breakdown (biodegrade) in water and when mixed with fats, oils and grease in our sewers, they create massive, rock-like solids called fatbergs. Once the children have investigated, can they plan a campaign to change people’s behaviour?  

How can we encourage people to use less plastic and reuse/ recycle the plastic we have? Our Climate Challenge activities all include small positive actions that children can take to make a difference. Younger children could discuss What If your school banned paper? and make biodegradable plant pots. Older children could discuss What If there was no plastic? or find out how much electricity the school uses. They could also learn about different types of pollution with the Odd One Out Pollution everywhere. 

Scientists tackling the impact of climate change  

Learn about how scientists are helping humans live with the impact of the climate crisis. Kiara Nirghin, a South African woman, was just 16 years old when she invented a new water conservation material for soils using local waste products (orange peel and avocado skins). This powder absorbs lots of water when it is wet (up to 300 times its own weight) and then releases the water when the plants need it. This is essential for combatting the effects of drought. Milly Hennayake is an engineer who keeps people safe from flooding, building new flood defences. Hayden Francis is a scientist working on a solution to make the batteries of electric vehicles work better and last longer. This will help us move away from cars that use fossil fuels. 

Start with Art Competition 

You could link Explorify’s Start with Art competition to your Science Week, challenging children to create a piece of art on the theme of change and adapt. Have a look at last year's winners What is changing? and Ocean habitat.  

Picking a different theme 

Your school may decide to have a different theme altogether for your science week. Look at previous year’s packs for ideas, or you could take a look at the Primary Science Teaching Trust’s Whistlestop Science Weeks. ESERO-UK has a booklet on how to run a themed space week and the NFU’s Farming STEMterprise would also make a great science week providing a range of cross-curricular, practical and DT tasks related to running a farm shop business. 

Whatever the theme, children will really enjoy the opportunity to focus on science and particularly science enquiry. 

Image credit

Young plant growing among rocks by GreenLiving via Getty Images