For many of us, Christmas is associated with a pile of wrapped parcels lying under the Christmas tree. What could be inside them? In the run-up to Christmas, why not design your own mysterious parcels – not presents, but ‘black boxes’ in which something is hidden. Can your students use their knowledge of science and their investigative skills to work out what’s inside? Here are some examples of what to put in the boxes, but you could also try your own ideas. Or why not get one class of students to design black boxes for another class? For black box ideas to get students aged 15-18 to think about electric circuits, see: Onderová L (2009) Physics: a black box? Science in School 12: 40-43. www.scienceinschool.org/2009/issue12/blackbox

Image courtesy of Liliboas / iStockphoto

For black boxes to get younger students thinking about science, see:

Tifi A, Natale N, Lombardi A (2006) Scientists at play: contraptions for developing science process skills. Science in School 2: 20-23. www.scienceinschool.org/2006/issue2/play

Tifi A, Natale N, Lombardi A (2006) Scientists at play: teaching science process skills. Science in School 1: 37-40. www.scienceinschool.org/2006/issue1/play

Annie Chien and Allison Godshall describe a black box activity involving tubes and different coloured water; download a PDF with full instructions here.

Coral Clark from the Resource Area for Teaching, a US online collection of teaching resources, offers some simple black box ideas here.

What else could you use black boxes for in lessons? For example, how might you use (waterproof) black boxes to get your students to investigate density? Why not share your ideas with other Science in School readers using the comment function at the end of this page?