THE Neil Armstrongs and Albert Einsteins of tomorrow played with space rocks in an event which aimed to get them excited about science.

Cornerstone Arts Centre in Didcot hosted its annual Family Science Day on Tuesday, a free session which saw dozens of children engage with the subject.

Oscar Knight, 6, enjoyed the science day with his 8-year-old sister Neamh.

The siblings, who go to John Blandy Primary School in Southmoor, were among dozens to embrace their scientific side.

Oscar said: "It was fun, my favourite bit was making my own crystals. I want to go into space when I grow up."

His sister said: "I liked the activity where you get to throw a ball in the paddling pools."

The children threw beach balls into two different-sized paddling pools, representing telescopes, to show that larger lenses fit in more images.

Their mum Nicola Knight, 41, said: "It was brilliant. It was so good to see so many children there really excited about science - it was very different to when I was in school."

The science day ran in partnership with RAL Space, which carries out space research and technology development at Harwell Science and Innovation Campus.

Maddy Biddulph, spokeswoman for Cornerstone, said: "It was a huge success, it was really popular. We had a few different areas with activities and lots of different stalls for children to come along and take part. It's a fun event to get children interested in science."

Each year the event adopts a different theme, which this time was 'great and small'.

Children got to stand in front of a thermal camera which pictured parts of their bodies in different colours according to how warm they were.

They also played with telescopes, molecular models, and put together a giant jigsaw.