PUPILS from two Worcester schools paid a visit to the Queen for a science show with a difference.

Nunnery Wood and Pershore High Schools sent students to the Buckingham Palace Science Day to take part in a special Punk Science Show hosted by the monarch.

They were joined by students from two other Worcestershire schools, King Charles I in Kidderminster and Trinity High, Redditch.

The event was co-ordinated by the Royal Society and Research Councils UK, and included exhibits from the Natural History Museum and various universities, plus scientific items from the Royal Collection and a display by Channel Four's Time Team.

Some students took part in the one hour-long Punk Science Show in the Ball Supper Room, where one exhibit was a life-size model of a prehistoric flying creature.

Other displays included How to Build a Human, The Rough Guide to Mars, and Superhuman Vision: Seeing With Terahertz.

They were organised with support from the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum and the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 and were staffed by more than 100 scientists.

Steve Davies, Worcestershire county council's senior inspector for science, who joined the students, said: "We had an absolutely brilliant time.

"Only a small number of local authorities were invited to take part in the big day, so to take four schools to the event was quite prestigious.

"But then, Worcestershire as a county has quite a high profile when it comes to the sciences, with QinetiQ in Malvern one of the highest-profile employers of scientists in the country."