The STEM Seedlings workshops listed below are available to Primary Schools in selected Scottish local authorities in the Autumn 2025 term. These workshops were developed by our 2025 cohort with support from the STEM Seedlings RSE-YAS programme team. To enquire about a specific workshop for your Primary School, please use our online request form.
- W1 – Germs: The Good, The Bad and The Buggy (P1-P7)
- W2 – The Immune Squad (P5-P7)
- W3 – Brain Buzz: Explore your Body’s Super-Fast Messaging System (P5-P7)
- W4 – Get to know the soil beneath you – An introduction to soil bacteria (P5-P7)
- W5 – A Powerful Day (P6-P7)
- W6 – Inventing with Recycling! (P4-P7)
- W7 – Now you see me: Evolution in action! (P1-P7)
- W8 – From Rainbows to Quantum: The weird world of Light (P5-P7)
- W9 – Seeing the Invisible World (P5-P7)
- W10 – Electric Explorers: Robots on the Move (P1-P7)
Workshop 1 – Germs: The Good, The Bad and The Buggy (P1-P7)
Early Career Researchers:
Roslyn Henry, University of Aberdeen
Amy Campbell, University of Strathclyde
Workshop Details:
Microbes are tiny living things that are all around us, in the air, in the soil, in water, on our skin and even inside our bodies. Many bacteria are helpful. Some live in our tummies and help us digest food. Others help plants grow or clean up the environment by breaking down waste. Without good bacteria, the world wouldn’t work properly.
These tiny creatures come in all sorts of shapes — some are round like balls, others look like rods or spirals. They also move in different ways: some wiggle with tiny tails called flagella, some glide along surfaces, and others float through the air or hitch a ride on water droplets. Some microbes can make us feel ill and these are the ones that we try to stop with things like hand washing, medicines, and vaccines. In this workshop we will look at how easily bacteria can spread and why it’s so important to wash our hands. We will also design our own ‘germs’ with modelling clay.
Activity 1: In this activity, children will explore how easily germs can spread through touch — and how proper handwashing can help stop them! We’ll use glitter mixed with lotion to represent germs, as it sticks to skin and is easy to see. In small groups (6-7) children will each chose a glitter colour. Children will shake hands with each other to observe the spread of glitter germs. Children will be asked to first wipe their hands with paper towels, then wash their hands for 5 seconds and then wash their hands for 20 seconds following handwashing guidelines. After each step, the children will be asked to look at their hands to see what has happened to the glitter germs.
Activity 2: Make your own germ! Children will design their own germ out of plasticine, giving it a name and thinking about where it lives, how it moves and what it does – good, bad or ugly! Children can take their germ home with them. Can also have worksheets available for children not wanting to use plasticine.
Workshop 2 – The Immune Squad (P5-P7)
Early Career Researchers:
Emma Parsons and Molly McKenzie, University of Glasgow
Workshop Details:
The Immune Squad is an exciting, hands-on activity designed for P5–P7 pupils, led by Molly McKenzie and Dr Emma Parsons from the Translational Cancer Pathology Group at the University of Glasgow. Through an interactive role-playing game, pupils will step into the shoes of various cells in the body — from cytotoxic T cells and helper T cells to macrophages and cancer cells — and work together to identify the cancer cells by finding their correct cellular partners.
The session also includes a fun colour-by-numbers activity that helps pupils visualise the complexity of the immune system. Just like in real lab techniques such as multiplex immunofluorescence, colouring the different immune cells makes it easier to distinguish between them and understand how they function together to protect the body.
This activity is relevant to Curriculum for Excellence outcomes “Body Systems and Cells” and “Topical Science”, helping pupils explore cell function, body systems, health and the role of scientific discovery in society.
Workshop 3 – Brain Buzz: Explore your Body’s Super-Fast Messaging System (P5-P7)
Early Career Researchers:
Abby O’Sullivan and Jade Lucas, University of Edinburgh
Workshop Details:
Ever wondered how your brain knows when something is hot, cold, or itchy, and how your body knows to move your hand away from it? In this hands-on workshop, we’ll explore how the nervous system works like a super-fast communication network, carrying messages between the brain, spinal cord, and the rest of the body. You’ll discover how sensory neurons bring in information about the world around us, and how motor neurons send messages back out to make our muscles move.
We’ll also learn what happens when this system gets damaged, and how important it is for everything we do — from blinking to kicking a ball! Plus, we’ll get crafty and build our own neurons and spinal cords. Perfect for curious minds who want to explore how their body really talks.
Workshop 4 – Get to know the soil beneath you: An introduction to soil bacteria (P5-P7)
Early Career Researcher:
Josephine Giard, Heriot-Watt University
Workshop Details:
The idea of this workshop is to introduce the children to the organisms living in the soil that we cannot see with the naked eye. During the first part of the workshop, the children will learn about the great abundance and diversity of soil microbes including their appearance and functional properties. In the second part of the workshop, the children will get the opportunity to design and craft their own microbes. They will also have the chance to look at different bacteria through a microscope and witness their diversity with their own eyes.
Workshop 5 – A Powerful Day (P6-P7)
Early Career Researchers:
Hannah Bryant, University of Edinburgh
Tasniva Mumu, Heriot-Watt University
Workshop Details:
“A POWERFUL DAY” is an engaging workshop where we’ll introduce the exciting topic of renewable energy and explore how the power of the sun and wind can shape a cleaner future. Children will learn about how energy powers almost everything we do – from switching on the lights to playing games on a tablet – and explain that there are different ways to make that energy. Together, we’ll explore what makes some energy sources renewable, like wind and solar, and why these are so important for protecting our planet and creating a cleaner future. To get everyone thinking, we’ll ask for a show of hands to see who can name different types of energy, building on what the children already know before diving into the hands-on learning.
Using simple demonstration kits, we’ll show how wind and solar energy work, letting the children see these invisible forces in action and discover how nature can provide power. Then, the class will play a fun game of charades, acting out daily activities that need energy, from charging a phone to baking a cake, to understand how energy touches every part of life. At their desks, pupils will split into ‘wind’ and ‘solar’ groups and work through worksheets to plan which energy source to use for different weather conditions. We’ll wrap up with a recap and a discussion about energy storage, encouraging them to think about how we can save and use renewable energy when it’s needed most.
Workshop 6 – Inventing with Recycling! (P4-P7)
Early Career Researcher:
Rosie Bristow, Heriot-Watt University
Workshop Details:
Learn how to be an inventor! We will use recycling and household objects to build interlocking kitchen roll tube gears and an elastic band driven pulley! Rosie will teach the class about her job as an inventor, and how she uses mechanical engineering techniques to solve problems. The class are encouraged to bring recycling to use in the workshop, and can take their inventions home to continue working on them.
Workshop 7 – Now you see me: Evolution in action! (P1-P7)
Early Career Researchers:
Sara Medina-Lombardero, Heriot-Watt University
Leah Gray, Aberdeen University
Workshop Details:
Dive into the amazing world of evolution, natural selection, and camouflage with this exciting, hands-on workshop! Together, we’ll discover how animals survive – whether by blending into their habitats or by warning predators with bold colour patterns. Through fun games and experiments, we’ll test how well our own specially designed butterflies can survive and adapt to different environments. Which butterfly will outlast the rest? Let’s play!
Workshop 8 – From rainbows to quantum: the weird world of light!
Early Career Researcher:
Annameng (Marian) Ma, Heriot-Watt University
Workshop Details:
In this curious and interactive workshop, we will explore the colorful, playful, and sometimes invisible world of light. We’ll begin with a simple question: Where do you see light in your life? From sunlight and lamps to phones and TVs, light is everywhere, but it’s much more complex than it seems.
We’ll explore the properties of light with fun visuals and demos. Kids will learn that light travels in straight lines, can reflect off mirrors, bend through water, and even split into rainbows. We’ll show that light can be described as a wave, and that each color is a wave of a different size. We’ll even explore kinds of light we can’t see, like infrared or ultraviolet, and how we still use them. Then we’ll see how light helps us in everyday life: from taking selfies to powering solar panels, guiding lasers in medicine, and sending Netflix shows through invisible cables. Every kind of light wave has its own superpower. Through a simple demo, kids will see how waves interfere to measure tiny things. Then we’ll meet photons, the tiny building blocks of light, and show how quantum light helps us make unbreakable secret codes.
Hopefully, by the end, everyone will see light not just as something that shines, but as something they can explore, question, and even use to imagine inventions of the future.
Workshop 9 – Seeing the Invisible World (P5-P7)
Early Career Researchers:
Jane Lyon, University of Glasgow
Naomi McGurk, University of Strathclyde
Workshop Details:
There is a secret world all around us: the microscopic world! From tiny creatures living on your desk to cells that make up your skin. Microscopes are like super eyes and can make tiny things look huge. In this workshop you will become microscope detectives and can draw something tiny that you see using a microscope.
Can we take this further? Are we able to see things that are actually invisible? There is hidden light all around us. Scientists use special light to see hidden things. Infrared light is like having X-ray vision! It’s all around us but we can’t see it. It can peek under your skin and snakes use this light to hunt in the dark! In this workshop you will use special cameras and infrared light to reveal the hidden blood vessel map in our hand.
How are microscopes and infrared light similar? They both help us see things our eyes normally can’t, they both use light in special ways, they are both tools scientists use to explore, and they both reveal hidden worlds! Let’s explore the invisible world together!
Workshop 10 – Electric Explorers: Robots on the Move (P1-P7)
Early Career Researchers:
Carolina Tacchella and Faezeh Shalchy, Heriot-Watt University
Workshop Details:
In this exciting hands-on workshop, kids will dive into the world of electricity—discovering where it comes from, how it works, and what circuits and electronics do. Then, we’ll bring that knowledge to life by exploring robots—what they are, how they work, and what makes something a robot. Each child will even get the chance to design and create their very own robot!