PUPILS at Great Bardfield Primary School are turning into professors thanks to an after school science group. The Mad Science Club meets every Thursday after school under the insane instruction of mad-cap scientists Professor Chaos and Penny Plasma. It s

PUPILS at Great Bardfield Primary School are turning into professors thanks to an after school science group.

The Mad Science Club meets every Thursday after school under the insane instruction of mad-cap scientists Professor Chaos and Penny Plasma.

It's all the idea of teacher Debbie Taylor. "I wanted something to develop the children's thinking skills and this seemed ideal," she said.

Two groups of 15 children aged between six and nine take part in the lessons. Each week the children learn about sections of science.

"This week it was optical illusions and colours," said Miss Taylor. "One group learned about light and how it consists of different colours. The other about how the eye can be deceived by what we see."

Experiments and demonstrations included Penny Plasma burning various substances such as copper in the flame of a bunsen burner to see what colours they gave off.

To learn about optical illusions Professor Chaos's group used photographs and pictures and, to prove that you can't always believe what you see, the Professor ate a candle, much to the class's revulsion.

The lessons are certainly going down well. "Funtastic" exclaimed one pupil when asked what he thought of the class.