Real science, in your classroom.
Melbourne primary school incursions for Foundation to Year 6, serving schools across Melbourne and regional Victoria for over 30 years. We arrive with the circuits, the chemistry and the mess — your students spend the whole session doing the work.
School term dates fill early — most schools book about four weeks ahead.
Hands-on from start to finish
students working with the equipment, not watching
Trusted by over 300 primary schools across Victoria
Why schools book Hands On Science
Students do the science
Not a stage show. Every child works with real equipment, in pairs or small groups, for the whole session.
Mapped to VC2 codes
Each program lists the Victorian Curriculum v2.0 content descriptions it delivers, so it slots into your planning.
We bring everything
All equipment, consumables and setup. Your classroom stays a classroom — no lab, no shopping list.
Documented and insured
We carry risk assessments and WWCC-checked facilitators, and we're pre-registered with SAM4Schools.
22 incursion programs
Pick a program, we bring the rest
Every program is built around students doing the science themselves, and mapped to Victorian Curriculum v2.0 content descriptions.
Physical Sciences
Electricity
Students build working circuits, classify conductors and insulators, compare series and parallel configurations, and investigate how different energy sources, including hand-powered generators, produce electricity.
Physical Sciences
Force & Motion
Students measure forces with a spring balance, test friction across surfaces, feel inertia first-hand, launch reaction rockets, and explore magnetism and static electricity.
Physical Sciences
Heat & Energy
Students investigate how heat moves by observing particle movement, comparing conduction through plastic and metal using an infrared thermometer, and testing how insulators slow heat transfer.
Physical Sciences
How Objects Move
Students roll differently shaped objects, race a balloon-powered car, drop parachutes, launch foam pump rockets, and test what sinks or floats, exploring how pushes and pulls drive every outcome.
Physical Sciences
Light & Sound
Students sort materials as transparent, translucent or opaque, feel vibrations with tuning forks, build a box guitar to explore pitch, and create shadows with a torch.
Physical Sciences
Light
Students investigate reflection, refraction and diffraction using mirrors, lenses and diffraction gratings, with laser beam demonstrations bringing the physics of light into sharp, visible focus.
Chemical Sciences
Reactive Chemistry
Students investigate reversible and irreversible chemical change through real reactions: a polymer reversal, a sealed reaction bag and a teacher-led Elephant's Toothpaste demonstration.
Chemical Sciences
Materials & Mixing
Students identify mystery liquids, trigger a chemical reaction, transform a powder into instant snow, use a colour-change indicator, and separate iron filings from sand with a magnet.
Chemical Sciences
Natural & Processed Materials
Students sort real specimens by origin, process gelatine into bioplastic, test elasticity and shape memory in nitinol wire, and examine absorbency under digital microscopes.
Chemical Sciences
States of Matter
Students identify mystery matter in sealed balloons, grow crystals, compare liquid viscosities, watch gallium melt at body temperature, and make their own polymer bouncy balls.
Chemical Sciences
Wonderful World of Materials
Students sort and test everyday objects for magnetism, bounciness and waterproofing, discover that magnetic force passes through barriers, and build a friction-powered spinning top from paddle pop sticks and elastic bands.
Biological Sciences
Life Cycles
Students sort living and non-living specimens, model pollination with pipe-cleaner bees, examine seeds, set up their own mini-greenhouse, and observe live mealworms at different life stages.
Biological Sciences
Life Cycles
Students compare the life cycles of plants, insects and amphibians, investigate pollination and seed dispersal, and observe live mealworms to track an insect life cycle in action.
Earth and Space Sciences
Earth, Moon & Sun
Students model day and night, the Moon's orbit and eclipses using globes and torches, investigate orbital motion hands-on with a funnel and ping-pong ball, and launch water rockets.
Earth and Space Sciences
Earth in Space
Students model Earth's axial tilt, seasons and orbital motion at scale, explore the solar system and the speed of light, and launch Alka-Seltzer water rockets to connect forces to space travel.
Earth and Space Sciences
Natural Disasters
Students model convection currents, tectonic plate movement, water erosion, underwater volcanic eruption and tornado formation, connecting each process to real-world natural disasters.
Earth and Space Sciences
Our Changing Earth
Students simulate mechanical and chemical weathering, model water erosion on a sugar cube landscape, build layered sedimentary rock from plasticine, model the rock cycle, and excavate fossil specimens as palaeontologists.
Earth and Space Sciences
Water
Students identify mystery liquids including a polluted water sample, test for acid rain and pollution using a natural indicator, model the water cycle, and explore surface tension and how plants move water.
Earth and Space Sciences
Weather
Students model evaporation, condensation, transpiration and precipitation, investigate how temperature drives air movement, and build a shaving-foam rain cloud before making a tornado in a bottle.
Design and Technologies
Building & Construction
Young engineers build earthquake-tested cup towers, compare bridge designs to see why arches are stronger than flat spans, build and test their own pop-stick bridge, then design, compare and take home a catapult.
Design and Technologies
Building & Construction
Students build earthquake-resistant towers, discover why arches beat flat spans, build and load-test their own pop-stick bridge, and compare two catapult designs before refining and testing their own.
Design and Technologies
Building & Construction
Students tackle towers, bridges and catapults using the full engineering design cycle, designing, building, testing against measurable criteria and iterating to improve performance, plus a hands-on demonstration of why triangles resist twisting better than squares.
How a visit works
01
Choose and book
Pick your programs by year level and topic, then book online or call us. We confirm dates and send a booking summary.
02
We prepare everything
You get the risk assessment, curriculum mapping and a short prep note. Ten minutes of desk rearranging is all we ask of your staff.
03
Students get their hands dirty
Our facilitator runs the session while your teacher stays in the room. Up to 30 students per session, back-to-back across the day.
5-star reviews
What schools tell us afterwards
Unedited feedback from the teachers and coordinators who booked us.
“Students engaged. A great range of experiments. They very much enjoyed making the bouncy ball. See you guys in the future.”
“Thank you for coming to our school. The facilitator was wonderful. She had all the children engaged and excited to carry out the experiments. It was a great experience!”
“The students loved the sessions and the experiments they did. The facilitator was very knowledgeable and kept the students engaged the whole time.”
“Amazing! The presenter was great with the students, the incursion was so hands-on and engaging. Loved it.”
“The experiments definitely ensured our students were engaged and were able to make connections to causes of natural disasters.”
“Always a great learning experience for our students. So hands-on and engaging. Thank you!”
Resources
Practical reading for primary teachers
The real benefits of hands-on science for primary schools
Beyond engagement: what hands-on science actually does for retention, confidence, equity and the students your textbook quietly leaves behind.
Read article →
How to choose the right science program for your school
A practical filter for cutting through provider marketing, and the specific questions that separate genuine education from well-photographed entertainment.
Read article →
Science enrichment vs classroom science: what's the difference?
Enrichment is not a substitute for your teaching, nor a luxury add-on. Here is the specific role it is designed to play, and why the framing protects your budget.
Read article →Ready to book real science for your students?
Tell us your year levels and preferred dates. We'll confirm availability and bring everything with us.
Limited dates each term — one facilitator, one school per day.