TV star Maddie Moate swapped the studio for the classroom to join children at an Ipswich primary school in a special science lesson.

The Bafta award-winning presenter, who presents the CBeebies series Do You Know, visited Sidegate Primary School as part of a nationwide tour promoting Explorify, a primary school science teaching project.

She said: “Children are natural scientists.

“Science at its essence is observing the world around you and just asking why.

“Children do that naturally but I think it’s very easy for science lessons and teaching to feel overwhelming, especially later on in school.

Ipswich Star: Explorify Event at Sidegate Primary School. Kids at Sidegate Primary School take part in fun science activities with Bafta award-winning TV presenter Maddie Moate to celebrate the schools success in science education with Wellcome TrustExplorify Event at Sidegate Primary School. Kids at Sidegate Primary School take part in fun science activities with Bafta award-winning TV presenter Maddie Moate to celebrate the schools success in science education with Wellcome Trust (Image: Archant)

“I’ve been working with Explorify to develop three activities.

“The idea around all of them is to take a bit of pressure of the teachers with really simple activities to run in a classroom. The kids here today have really enjoyed themselves.”

Explorify has been developed with the Wellcome Trust, which has devised a website to provide teachers with easy-to-use activities to enhance lessons and develop pupils’ thinking skills.

During one activity, children watched videos explaining how a solar panelled toy car worked and then used the sun to get a real model to move.

Ipswich Star: Explorify Event at Sidegate Primary School. Kids at Sidegate Primary School take part in fun science activities with Bafta award-winning TV presenter Maddie Moate to celebrate the schools success in science education with Wellcome TrustExplorify Event at Sidegate Primary School. Kids at Sidegate Primary School take part in fun science activities with Bafta award-winning TV presenter Maddie Moate to celebrate the schools success in science education with Wellcome Trust (Image: Archant)

Maddie said: “It’s amazing, we were just talking about a solar powered toy and one of the boys in the class pretty much told me exactly how it works. It always blows my mind, actually, the level of knowledge these children have and usually that comes from their own interest.”

Year Four teacher Hannah Banyard said: “It has gone really well. The children have really got involved and have talked a lot which is exactly what we wanted.

“We try to up the profile of science as being a really interesting and fun subject and hopefully they take it on further.

Because we teach in discreet ways they don’t see that actually science is needed in a lot of jobs or careers that they may wish to take.”

Ipswich Star: Explorify Event at Sidegate Primary School. Kids at Sidegate Primary School take part in fun science activities with Bafta award-winning TV presenter Maddie Moate to celebrate the schools success in science education with Wellcome TrustExplorify Event at Sidegate Primary School. Kids at Sidegate Primary School take part in fun science activities with Bafta award-winning TV presenter Maddie Moate to celebrate the schools success in science education with Wellcome Trust (Image: Archant)

Eight-year-old Connor Ditcham said: “I enjoyed the lesson today because I got to learn new things that I didn’t know and I got to share my ideas with the class which was fun.

“I like science because it’s exciting and you learn new things that you didn’t know. I liked today’s lesson because it was fun and we got to share our ideas.”

Ipswich Star: Explorify Event at Sidegate Primary School. Kids at Sidegate Primary School take part in fun science activities with Bafta award-winning TV presenter Maddie Moate to celebrate the schools success in science education with Wellcome TrustExplorify Event at Sidegate Primary School. Kids at Sidegate Primary School take part in fun science activities with Bafta award-winning TV presenter Maddie Moate to celebrate the schools success in science education with Wellcome Trust (Image: Archant)

Ipswich Star: Explorify Event at Sidegate Primary School. Kids at Sidegate Primary School take part in fun science activities with Bafta award-winning TV presenter Maddie Moate to celebrate the schools success in science education with Wellcome TrustExplorify Event at Sidegate Primary School. Kids at Sidegate Primary School take part in fun science activities with Bafta award-winning TV presenter Maddie Moate to celebrate the schools success in science education with Wellcome Trust (Image: Archant)