Science Drama Workshop on Forces | KS2
A science fair is about to begin. The trophy is gleaming, the experiments are ready, and every student is desperate to win. There’s just one problem. The trophy has vanished.
A science fair is about to begin. The trophy is gleaming, the experiments are ready, and every student is desperate to win. There’s just one problem. The trophy has vanished.
In this physical drama-led science workshop, children become detectives with a real case to crack. Working against the clock before the fair starts that evening, they must investigate six different science experiments, each one a potential suspect, and use what they discover to identify the culprit.
The session opens with children receiving the case briefing and agreeing on the ground rules of good detective work: listening carefully, watching closely, and thinking before speaking. A warm-up game gets them on their feet, moving through the space with magnifying glasses in hand, scribbling notes and tiptoeing for clues, all while shifting their minds into detective mode.
From there, the investigation takes them through six science stations, each belonging to a different student at the fair. They meet Francesca, whose experiment explores friction by becoming toy sail cars propelled across surfaces of wood, sandpaper and bubble wrap, feeling for themselves how texture slows movement. They work in threes to understand levers with Oscar, one child becoming the load, one the fulcrum, one the force, physically discovering how position changes the effort required to lift something heavy.
Rhiannon’s gravity experiment turns the room into a laboratory, with children predicting which falling objects will hit the ground first and which will float down, learning how air resistance pushes back against gravity’s pull. Claudia’s thrust experiment has children transforming into deflating balloon rockets, expanding, launching, and discovering Newton’s third law through their own bodies. Eddie’s ramp investigation brings gravity and friction back together, as children choose an object, become it, and explore how weight, steepness and surface texture all change the speed of descent.
Then comes Sydney’s magnet experiment, and everything shifts. As children walk the space attracting and repelling each other based on magnetic poles, the penny begins to drop. The trophy is made of metal. Sydney’s electromagnet was set up right next to it. And suddenly, Sydney is looking very shifty indeed.
Throughout the workshop, children are not simply being told facts about forces. They are inhabiting them. Every concept is explored through movement, decision-making and collaborative play, building genuine understanding through experience rather than instruction. By the time the case is solved, children will be able to confidently talk about gravity, friction, thrust, levers, magnets and air resistance because they have felt them working in their own bodies.
The session closes with a debrief that draws out the learning, celebrates the teamwork, and gives every child the chance to reflect on what they are proud of from the day.
Mystery Days are two hour immersive workshops for a class of approximately 30 pupils, and we can deliver a maximum of two workshops in a school day.
Curriculum links: Forces (KS2 Science). Also supports communication, teamwork, creative thinking and PSHE.
