Five and six-year-old pupils took part in a video conference on science with a professor from Imperial College London - making them among the youngest pupils in the borough to use the Kingwood City Learning Centre's video link.

The 27 children from Larmenier and Sacred Heart Primary School, in Hammersmith, joined the session at the Kingwood CLC, in Fulham, on Friday (2 July) as part of a project funded by the Royal Society, the UK's national academy for science.

Trish Tolan, a year one teacher at Larmenier and Sacred Heart, and Sue Whear, a pharmacist from Charing Cross Hospital, were successful in their bid for a £2,500 grant from the Royal Society to fund a science project. The project on mixtures, suspensions and emulsions has been enhanced by the council's Excellence in Cities team, who organise extra activities for 'gifted and talented' children.

The video conference consolidated an eight-week, class-based project led by Sue Whear, who is also a Larmenier and Sacred Heart parent. The video sessions, of which Friday's was the second, were led by a Professor of Medical Oncology at Imperial College London, who is also a parent of a child in the class.

During the first video conference Professor Hani Gabra brought together two experiments previously carried out in the class and conducted an experiment by sprinkling salt onto oil floating on water. The salt pushed the oil below the water only for it to float back up when the salt dissolved. At the second video session on Friday Professor Gabra expanded on a classroom experiment to show water will evaporate more quickly if heated. Salt that had been dissolved in the water crystallised out more quickly when heated than when left on the classroom desk.

Year one teacher, Trish Tolan, who is also the school's gifted and talented co-ordinator, said: "We have been carrying out really exciting and practically-based experiments with mixtures, suspensions and emulsions in class. We related these to everyday life - the children have learned that if you put washing up liquid into oil and water they will mix because the washing up liquid is an emulsifying agent and will remove grease from plates. The children have also made their own emulsions of French dressing and butter, which they have enjoyed eating!
The facilities at the CLC have added an extra dimension to the project with the video conferencing and each child having access to their own computer."

Last year Mrs Tolan and the children in her class studied mould and bacteria in another project, also in collaboration with Sue Whear, during which they visited Charing Cross Hospital to see how pharmacists work in sterile conditions.

Sister Hannah Maria Dwyer, headteacher of Larmenier and Sacred Heart Primary School, said: "The school will continue to support real achievement through innovative projects such as this one. It has been a very exciting learning experience for such young children."

Cllr David Williams, deputy for education, said: "It is really exciting to see such young children getting to grips with science in this lively and relevant way. The state-of-the-art facilities at the Kingwood CLC have enabled us to provide extra creative and academic opportunities for pupils such as this video conference, which was run as part of our programme for 'gifted and talented' children. This marvellously creative and inspiring learning experience would not have been possible without the CLC's superb facilities, funded by the government's Excellence in Cities programme. We are grateful to the Royal Society for funding this project and to Professor Gabra and Sue Whear for giving their time and expertise."