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Cool Science Gallery

A favourite location for Cool Science is Greens Windmill & Science Centre, Sneinton, Nottingham. Here museum manager, Jamie Duff, poses with Cool Pete at the start of a Summer Visit.

In Feb 2020, Cool Science visited the Windmill at half term and was located inside. Here an apprehensive audience awaits what proved to be a very loud bang!

2. The museum has a brilliant core group of volunteers with some temporary additions each year from universities and elsewhere. This photo (Summer 2019) includes Miller Andy (right with white coat) and Workshop Manager Lee (at back). These guys do a marvellous job to ensure visitors are made welcome (and visits are FREE!)

3 A typical group at the mill watching demos in Summer 2015. These are often a welcome attraction in between pizza baking sessions which use flour from the working windmill

4 In March 2020, Cool Science put on 7 workshops at The Erewash Musem in Ilkeston. These were enjoyed by local schools and a home schooling group. For workshop images click here.

4 This shot taken from a schools Forces Workshop video clip in 2009 shows pupils testing the strength of our electromagnet.

5 Cool Science visited The Abbey School in Northampton several times around 2008. Here pupils show their enthusiasm for science during a Cool Science Assembly.

6 This photo was taken at Pocklington Primary, N Yorks in 2011, and shows a rare Cool Science Event!. The rocket is powered by liquid nitrogen and is about to blast off from inside the tube. The picture was taken by a local press photographer.

7. A more typical and oft-repeated Bottle Rocket Launch. This simple water driven rocket goes surprisingly high and always gets a thumbs up from school groups. Several rockets have been lost when they landed outside school perimeters.

8 Cool Pete has clocked up over 150 hours of volunteer work as a STEM Ambassador. Here we see a group of teenagers trying to capture the imminent explosion as liquid ntrogen boils inside the bottle. This annual STEM event, called Big Bang, is held at Doncaster Racecourse and has attracted lots of companies with various stalls.

9 A local Friends group have done a great job improving the local park in Sandiacre. For several years they have organised a Summer Picnic and my first visit sparked my interest in doing table top demos in the open air at carnivals etc (July 2018).

10 The workshop where bits of equipment could be developed for the experimental demonstrations.2009

11. An early invention was adapted from a Tesco Toy and provided a rocket car fuelled by liquid nitrogen. A small quantity of liquid nitrogen is poured into the pop bottle and then the stopper is inserted. The car is set quickly on to its wheels and very soon pressure build up and pops the stopper . A stream of LN drives the car at high speed acrosss the demo bench. see video clip

12 An enjoyable afternoon in Bramcote Park at the" Hemlock Happening". These local events are brilliant as no long travel times are involved.

13 Cool Science has been a popular feature at the lively homegrown Howden Show in East Yorkshire.

14 Hucknall Fun Day, Nottingham. This picture illustrates the mixed age groups that gather round for the demos. Parents often take a real interest and clearly enjoy watching their children getting involved in some exciting science. Their questions certainly add to the interest of the day.

15 This Family Fun Day is run by the InterAct Group from Long Eaton School. Entry is free and includes a raffle ticket where the prize is a family holiday with EuroCamp. In this picture a young volunteer is helping to freeze tomatoes in liquid nitrogen.

16 Each year the Ilkeston & District Astronomy Society hold a Star Gazing Evening for the public at the Erewash Museum. It usually attracts a good crowd and though often a chilly occasion it provides a great opportunity to do fun experiments relating to planets and their very different temperatures. Nov 2018

17 After joining Long Eaton Rotary Club in 2017, I gave members an idea of the things I do as Cool Pete!. They made an appreciative audience and seemed to like quite something different from the usual after lunch talk.

18 Space Workshop:A rare press photo taken during a Science School Day in March 2016.. Pupils are holding the Saturn V rocket and the rocket cow.

19 Forces Workshop April 2009: One of the most popular choices from my list of topics was Forces. The workshop involved several toys & inventions and covered the SATS curriculum thus supporting the school curriculum as well as being fun.