SUMMER HOLIDAY activities 2021
Dive into a summer of incredible experiences on Cognition’s Holiday Activity Weeks.
Our summer programme is live!
Scroll down the page to read all about the courses we have on offer.
All sessions will be run at The Parkhouse Centre, Bude
Week 1: Cognition All Stars (2-5th August)
Week 2: Space Camp (9-13th August)
Week 3: Ocean Week (16-20th August)
WHAT?
STEAM Learning activities to keep your children’s minds engaged and enthralled over the summer.
2.5-3 hour sessions that you can book flexibly throughout August and our first Full Day Activities.
Our School Starters Programme is back for those making the next big step in their childhood in September 2021.
WHO?
Unless otherwise stated our activities are suitable for children from Reception - Year 6.
Additional activities for children in secondary school and preschool.
How?
Book individual courses using the buttons below.
Unfortunately you can’t add multiple courses ‘to a basket’, we know this is annoying and we’re working on it with our developers.
If you wish to see all the courses in a simpler list, head to the booking page OR
Week 1: All stars
2nd - 5th AUGUST
An awesome showcase of some of our favourite things. Will you pick coding, film making, dinosaur excavation - or try them all?
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Fantastic Fossils
Monday 2nd August
9.30am-12pm
Suitable for all ages.
What is a fossil? And how is one made? Join us for an incredible introduction to palaeontology. From Cog’s Big Dino Dig, and a giant fossil excavation pit to making our very own trace, cast or mould fossils. As well as performing a scientific investigation into the fossilisation process. This class is a must for any budding palaeontologist.
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Dino Detectives
Monday 2nd August
1.30-4pm
Suitable for all ages.
How do palaeontologists know so much about dinosaurs? What dinosaurs looked and sounded like? The difference between herbivores and carnivores?
Excavation tools at the ready! Help us dig out and assemble our very own dinosaur skeleton looking for clues about it's life. From gastroliths and digestion experiments to choreographing our own footprint stories, this class gives a fabulous insight into dino-life.
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School Starters: Dinosaur Roar
Monday 2nd August and Tuesday 3rd August
9:30 - 11am
Suitable for September ‘21 school starters
Explore the wonderful world of dinosaurs, where children are able to explore opposites in this fantastic rhyming book. ‘Dinosaur fast, dinosaur slow, dinosaur above, dinosaur below’. Children will learn all about the different dinosaurs, their characteristics and how they lived in this fun filled school starters programme.
Playing, laughing and learning. That’s how our School Starters program works. We take a favourite children’s book, some fun ideas for play, a dash of technology and weave in the learning.
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Superhero Science
Tuesday 3rd August
9.30am-12pm
Suitable for all ages.
Channel your inner hero as we test out some incredible superpowers through some science experiments.
Try out superman’s laser vision, Magneto’s magnetic controls and even experiment with Havoc’s energy spheres - and learn some of the science behind these amazing abilities.
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Superhero Engineering
Tuesday 3rd August
1.30-4pm
Age 6+
Recreate some of the coolest superhero devices in this hands-on engineering session.
Build elastic-band powered Batmobiles, BMax’s body armour and our own vortex cannons - it’s guaranteed to leave your Spidey senses tingling.
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Cog at the movies: Magical Special Effects
Wednesday 4th August
9.30am-12pm
Suitable for all ages.
Cog goes to the movies!
In this session, pupils will look at seemingly impossible movie special effects or tricks. From gravitational forcefields, hoverboards and bending objects; these movie mysteries are uncovered throughout this session.
With our scientific know-how we’ll conduct a series of awesome experiments to investigate some well known movie tricks. WOW moments guaranteed!
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Cog at the Movies: Awesome Animation
Wednesday 4th August
1.30-4pm
Age 7+
How do they do it?
This session explores some of the techniques used in film making. We take a dive into the world of special effects including green screens and forced perspective before embarking on our own mini Stop-Motion Animation Films.
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Minecraft Challenge
Thursday 5th August
9.30am-12pm
Suitable for both beginners and intermediate gamers. Bring your own device or borrow.
Our face-to-face Minecraft club is BACK! This fun session allows for group gaming with challenges and build battles set for you by our Minecraft expert leaders. Make new friends, learn new tips and practise your presentation skills in everyone’s favourite game. The possibilities are endless!
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Scratch Coding: Video Games
Thursday 5th August
1.30-4pm
Age 7+
Cognition’s first IN PERSON Code Club is here! We’re breaking out from behind our screens to welcome you all for our first in-person club.
Create your own video game animation using Scratch, MIT’s globally-popular coding platform. We will guide you through the session and allow your child to flex their imaginations as they design, create and code individual projects.
Suitable for both beginners and intermediate coders. Bring your own device or borrow.
Week 2: Space Camp
9th - 13th AUGUST
Science. Technology. Engineering.
An out of this world week of learning experiences - Cognition style.
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Lego We:Do Mars Rover Challenge
Monday 9th August
9.30am-12pm
Age 7+
We’re taking our robotics to the Red Planet! Participants will build and code their own rovers and navigate Martian terrain. We will test out wheel size over different surfaces, put our engineering skills to the test, experiment with vehicle design and discover plenty of facts about the Perseverance mission as we learn about how we might prepare for future life on Mars.
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Lunar Landings
Monday 9th August
1.30-4pm
Suitable for all ages.
This afternoon of moon-based engineering will see your children build their own lunar landing capsules. Big enough to sit in, this large-scale engineering and modelling challenge is out of this world! We will then explore the physics behind the lunar phases and take on the ‘Eggnauts’ challenge - it’s sure to be a ‘cracking’ good time!
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School Starters: How To Catch A Star
Tuesday 10th & Wednesday 11th August
9.30-11am
Suitable for September ‘21 school starters
There once was a boy, and the boy loved stars very much…
Our school starters sessions are specifically designed for those children starting reception in September. Covering phonics, numeracy, technology, play and socialisation over two mornings, this course will take your child on their very own star-finding mission.
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Science Space Camp
Tuesday 10th August
9.30am-12pm
Suitable for all ages.
Calling all astronauts!
This is your chance to find out all about life on the International Space Station. We will perform a number of experiments in our Cog laboratory and find out how the outcomes are different in microgravity, investigate centrifugal force and the effects of gravity, and even sample some astronaut food!
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Escape The Space Station
Tuesday 10th August
1.30-4pm
Age 7+
This fun session is designed to encourage collaboration, problem solving and team skills. Join us as we undertake a fantastic hands-on, practical session that will have your children thinking, laughing and making some super spacey memories.
From glove-box challenges to docking and locking before embarking on an epic escape room adventure this is a great way to ensure their grey matter stays on form throughout the summer!
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Minecraft Space Challenge
Wednesday 11th August
9.30am-12pm
Suitable for children who are competent playing Minecraft independently. Bring your own device, or borrow one of ours.
Our face-to-face Minecraft club is BACK! This fun space themed session allows for group gaming with challenges and space themed tasks set for you by our Minecraft expert leaders. What will you build to keep the astronauts entertained onboard the ISS? What are your astronaut boredom busters? Can you build a rocket?
Make new friends, learn new tips and practise your presentation skills in everyone’s favourite game. The possibilities are endless!
Suitable for children who are competent playing Minecraft independently. Bring your own device, or borrow one of ours.
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Rocket Blast Off
Wednesday 11th August
1.30-4pm
Suitable for all ages.
3, 2, 1, lift off!!
Blast rockets, stomp rockets and chemical reaction rockets are the order of the day in this superb session aimed at all future rocket scientists.
This afternoon is packed full of rocket propulsion experimentation and engineering. You’ll be sure to have a blast!
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Electrifying Constellations
Thursday 12th August
9.30am-12pm
Suitable for all ages.
Light up your summer with this cosmic session. This 2.5 hour creative extravaganza includes two types of art and design projects.
We will make some beautiful galactic artwork using unusual art techniques and experimenting with a variety of materials before learning about basic circuits and using LEDs and electronics to create illuminated constellation creations.
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Artemis mission challenge
Thursday 12th August
1.30-4pm
Age 7+
Artemis (Apollo’s mythological sister) is NASA’s next manned mission to the moon and in this awesome physics-based session we will undertake a series of engineering tasks and physics investigations on our journey to the moon.
Join us as we build balloon rockets and test their payload capacity, engineer a shuttle, build a moon base and try to get back to Earth safely.
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LEGO Robotics: Ev3 & Spike Space Challenge
Friday 13th August
Full Day Activity
Age 9+
9:30am - 4pm
(with a supervised lunch-break 12-1)This class is our first full day LEGO Challenge and it’s set to be a goodie! This EV3 and Spike robot challenge uses our two highest spec robots to complete a number of coding, LEGO build and problem solving challenges.
This day is ideal for any LEGO fan, with or without experience in coding and programming. Led by our LEGO Challenge expert, your children will get an insight into the Worldwide LEGO Competition League, and this might be the start of their competitive lego journey.
Week 3: Ocean week
16th - 20th August
Dive into the fun on our incredible journey beneath the waves.
Cool chemistry, ocean pollution solutions, incredible creatures and so much more await on this week of sea-themed sessions.
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Diving Deeper
Monday 16th August
9.30am-12pm
Suitable for all ages.
Join us as we bounce into buoyancy, discover the details of diving and dip our toes into the physics of floatation.
This fun discovery-based science session introduces and expands upon the fundamentals of water-physics to enable children to explore sinking, floating and buoyancy. Through a series of experiments and investigations we will build submarines, cartesian diving bottles and see if we can send a secret message in a sinking bottle.
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Sphero Marine Obstacle Course
Monday 16th August
1.30-4pm
Age 6+
Some Sphero-ious fun is planned for this session. These spherical robots are making their Cognition debut with a super fun splashy session.
Navigate the marine obstacle course - without detonating any mines! Develop coding and programming skills and even take part in a quick game of water polo. These super spheres take our robotic games to another depth.
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Seawater science
Tuesday 17th August
9.30am-12pm
Suitable for all ages.
Dive head first into this seriously fun, laughter-packed introductory chemistry session. We will investigate salinity, the mechanics of ocean currents, take a journey down through the ocean zones and even find out exactly how marine animals stay warm in icy Arctic waters - the hands-on way!
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Ocean chemistry
Tuesday 17th August
1.30-4pm
Age 8+
Budding chemists - this one is for you. We will create incredible chemical jellyfish and seaweed, investigate the effects of CO2 acidification and nitrification on seawater, and experiment with pH. We’ll show you how seawater is so much more than just salt - who knew?
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School Starters: The Rainbow Fish
Tuesday 17th August & Wednesday 18th August
9.30-11am
Suitable for children starting school September ‘21.
These school starters sessions explore the wonders of the ocean through the eyes of Rainbow Fish. Rainbow Fish doesn't want to share his beautiful shiny scales, but soon learns that sharing nicely leads to friendship.
Playing, laughing and learning. That’s how our School Starters program works. We take a favourite children’s book, some fun ideas for play, a dash of technology and weave in the learning. This course has a gentle focus on inter-personal skills and confidence for those starting school.
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Minecraft Challenge: Marine Madness
Wednesday 18th August
9:30 - 12pm
Suitable for children who are competent playing Minecraft independently. Bring your own device, or borrow one of ours.
Our face-to-face Minecraft club is BACK! This fun session allows for group gaming with underwater challenges and build battles set for you by our Minecraft expert leaders. Make new friends, learn new tips and practise your presentation skills in everyone’s favourite game. The possibilities are endless!
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Plastic (not) fantastic
Wednesday 18th August
1.30-4pm
Suitable for all ages.
The ocean needs your help.
On this session we will address some of the issues that threaten our seas and coastlines. We will work as a team as we complete an oil spill clean up. Find out how detergents work, which kind of materials pose the biggest threat, and just how hard is it to solve a problem once we have created it.
Then make a lasting reminder of the challenges ahead of our generation as we use materials retrieved from Bude’s beaches to form a work of art for Cognition to treasure forever.
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Augmented reality aquarium
Thursday 19th August
Full day course (with lunch break)
9.30am-4pm
Age 8+
Augmented reality gets its Cognition debut on this day long coding and 3D creation experience.
Animate and code incredible sea life as you work to build a complete aquarium, then be amazed as you explore your creation in augmented reality, allowing participants to project their own creations onto any plane surface in the real world, by looking through the screen of our iPads.
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Lego We:Do Ocean Clean up
Friday 20th August
9.30am-12pm
Age 7+
Design thinking at the ready!
This robotics session looks at the science behind the pollution problems in the ocean before asking you to get your thinking caps on for an awesome design challenge.
More than just building a machine capable of cleaning the seas, this fun, engaging and creative We:DO challenge looks at project design and research before testing your prototype and presenting to your peers.
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Lego SPIKE prime Turtley awesome tech
Friday 20th August
1.30-4pm
Ages 9+
We’re finishing off our summer sessions with our favourite robotics kit! Build and code a turtle complete with moving flippers before getting creative with your own RoboFish inventions. Adapt your designs to investigate fin movement, gills, and predator capability; hone your coding skills to produce accurate algorithms and most of all have a fin-tastic time!
