Welcome to the 12 Days of Science!

12 Days of Science

(Image credit: Future)

Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome to our festive science adventure!

This year The Week Junior Science+Nature has teamed up with Winchester Science Centre (and lots of other exciting brands) to offer young people a festive feast of science and nature-themed activities. Plus there are lots of fantastic prizes up for grabs every day.

The online event opens on 11 December 2021 and will last for 12 days (ending on 22 December 2021). Each day we release a fresh URL revealing a new activity. Keep an eye on our Facebook page, Twitter and Instagram accounts to see the links. Each competition lasts only a day, so you’ll need to get your entries in quickly.

Scroll down to see the activity and daily competition.


DAY 12 - Robot Christmas cracker jokes

Christmas Robots

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

Share the jokes and activity with your child.

Fancy some fun? Scientists from the University of Aberdeen created an artificially intelligent (AI) machine to write jokes – although you might think some of the jokes are a bit odd. Go to joking.abdn.ac.uk to read more about the machine. Then, download our festive feature, which includes a Christmas song written by a robot.

What do you get when you cross a festivity with a class?

A celebration course

What kind of tree is nauseated?

A sick-amore

What do you call a cross between a bun and a character?

A minor roll

What do you get when you cross a frog with a road?

A main toad


Robotics HoverBot Kit

(Image credit: Future)

Win a Robotics Smart Machines HoverBots kit

Build a HoverBot that balances on two wheels, a balancing bird bot and a balancing dinosaur robot. This kit allows your child to build eight motorised robots that use a special self-balancing technology to move around. Kids code the programs using an easy, visual programming app on a tablet or smartphone. To be in with a chance of winning this fantastic kit (worth more than £100), send your name and address to competitions@science-nature.co.uk by 23:59 on 22 December 2021. Make sure you put SMART MACHINES in the subject line.

For all rules head to sciencenature.theweekjunior.co.uk/12Daysterms.

For more information about science kits head to thamesandkosmos.co.uk