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Cold Water Impact
Learn what happens to your body in cold water.
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30 minutes
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Required: buckets, cold water, paper towels and stop watches
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Optional: display equipment
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Stay together
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Float
A practical experiment designed to measure the body’s responses to cold water immersion. Children learn about the automatic responses that can’t be controlled; the activity reinforces what to do if they find themselves unexpectedly in cold water.
Tell me more
A question and answer session about what happens to different parts of your body in cold water is followed by a chilly experiment using a bowl of ice-cold water.
There’s also a video included to show the effects of cold water shock.
Please ensure any appropriate permission is given and risk assessment complete ahead of undertaking any optional practical activity.
Curriculum links:
- England KS2 PSHE Health & Wellbeing
- Northern Ireland KS1&2, PD&MU, Personal Understanding and Health
- Republic of Ireland SPHE, Myself
- Scotland First & Second Level, PSE / HWB
- Wales Health and well-being, Science and technology
- Cold Water Impact - Guidance notes - PDF 3.7MB
- Cold Water Impact - Workshop slides - PDF 5.4MB
- Cold Water Impact - Worksheet - PDF 423KB
Arrange a workshop
Come and visit us or invite us to come and visit you - there's nothing quite like meeting RNLI volunteers and lifesavers to inspire young people.
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