Difficulty: Tricky Miguel hopes to become a magnificent mathematical magician. For his first trick he wants to present a standard 52-card deck and dramatically draw a face card (Jack, Queen or King). If the deck is randomly shuffled, what is the probability that Miguel will draw a face card on the first try? A standard 52 card deck has four suits (spades, clubs, diamonds, hearts). Each suit has the cards from 1 (or ace) to 10, and a Jack, a Queen and a King. Bonus question: a magician never reveals their secrets, but Miguel is considering replacing some of the non-face cards in the deck with ..read more

See if you have a wealth of knowledge about money in this quiz about polymer banknotes. Hopefully you can hit the jackpot with a 5/5! If you need a hint, grab a banknote and investigate for yourself. QUIZ START The post Polymer Banknotes – A Quick Quiz appeared first on Double Helix ..read more

EmSafe ensures that callers use the correct emergency number no matter what country they’re in. Credit: Rahul Kumar and EmLoop Software Limited Rahul Kumar is the winner of the 2024 Australian Science Teachers Association i3 Awards in the Year 11-12 Inventions category as well as the ASTA Grand Innovation Prize. The i3 awards are an annual, Australia-wide science fair celebrating inquiry, innovation and ingenuity. Double Helix is delighted to feature Rahul’s essay explaining his exceptional STEM project. For more information about ASTA and the i3 Awards, visit their website here. In Australia ..read more

Amy Dou is the winner of the 2024 Australian Science Teachers Association i3 Awards in the Year 5-6 Investigations category. The i3 awards are an annual, Australia-wide science fair celebrating inquiry, innovation and ingenuity. Double Helix is delighted to feature Amy’s essay explaining her exceptional research project. For more information about ASTA and the i3 Awards, visit their website here. Have you ever heard of pear-shaped eggs? These ‘pyriform’ eggs are so fascinating because they have a unique shape different from the usual oval shape, due to adaptation. Having one of the most pronou ..read more

Have you ever wondered why the sky is blue in the morning, and then orange in the evening? Incredibly, milk can show us why! You will need Smooth sided plastic jar, like a tupperware container Water Milk (full cream works best) Tablespoon Torch A darkened room What to do Add 1 tablespoon of milk to your plastic jar. Fill your plastic jar up with water. Congratulations! You have made your own sky jar. Bring your sky jar into a room you can darken by closing the shades and turning off the light. The room should still be light enough for you to see outlines of objects i ..read more

Look out! This quiz is meant to shake you up… unless of course you can rise like a tsunami and score a 5/5. QUIZ START The post Natural disasters – A Quick Quiz appeared first on Double Helix ..read more

Bathymetry is the study of the ocean floor. And it creates a lot of maps! These maps record the changing depths of the ocean and are often beautiful to look at. Why not make your own? You will need Notebook with blank pages Pencil Scissors 10 coloured pencils or markers Safety Handle scissors with care. What to do Open your notebook and turn 9 pages. The blank page on the left will make the bottom of your map. In the centre of this blank page, draw a blobby shape about 4 centimetres in diameter. It doesn’t have to be exact. Cut out your newly drawn shape. You wil ..read more

Difficulty: Tricky Flora likes to run up stairs as fast as she can! Sometimes she lands on every stair and sometimes she skips a stair, taking two in one stride. And sometimes, she mixes it up, skipping a stair with some strides, and not skipping on others. She never skips more than one stair in one stride – that’s a bit too dangerous! This gets her thinking: how many different ways can she run up a staircase? For example, she can run up a 3-stair staircase three different ways: 1 1 1 = meaning all three stairs taken 1 at a time 1 2 = one regular stride, and then skip a stair and do the r ..read more

Around and around we go with this interplanetary orbit quiz! Will you run ellipses ‘round these questions or will you find yourself tumbling back to Earth? QUIZ START The post Going into orbit – A Quick Quiz appeared first on Double Helix ..read more

Learn about the different parts of plants, as well as the science of preservation, by making your own pretty potpourri. You will need Flowers – we used roses Orange Cinnamon stick Vegetable peeler Paper towel Safety Vegetable peelers are sharp. Ask an adult to help What to do Put some paper towel on a table. We used about 8 sheets. Carefully remove the petals from your flowers. Lay the petals spaced out on the paper towel. Using a vegetable peeler, carefully cut strips of peel off an orange. Lay these out on paper towel too. Leave the petals and peel to dry f ..read more