DON'T worry, it's only an exploding teabag and it's supposed to be doing that. Suddenly school science is sexy again.

Or as Immi Foxall-Reilly, a Worcester secondary school student, puts it: "People think you have to be mega-brainy to do science and it's really boring, but that's not true at all."

It's a point education chiefs want to emphasise and these fascinating experiments that took place at Immi's school, Nunnery Wood High, all last week, were aimed at proving that science is relevant - and fun.

Gone are the days when it was all just about the periodic table and cutting up rats. Now, with exploding custard, Aboriginal art and "poo power" demonstrations, Nunnery Wood, Worcester's specialist science college, is showing how science affects us all, and therefore why more students should take an interest.

And the students are listening. As Alex Henderson, aged 16, says, it is not all about stuffy men in white coats stuck in a laboratory.

"Science can open so many doors," he says. "Whether you want to be a sports physio or criminal pathologist, you need to know about science and human biology."

Listening to Gordon Brown's Budget speech, it is a message the Government seems to understand too. The Chancellor is throwing money at science the way other subjects can only dream of. Science teachers could start being paid more than their colleagues to make up for a serious shortfall in their numbers.

New targets have been introduced on recruiting specialist physics, chemistry and biology teachers, with colleges receiving a bonus £1,000 for every science trainee they take on. It is hoped that the country will soon have 3,000 extra teachers in the subject.

Past money has already filtered down at Nunnery Wood, where specialist status has brought with it state-of-the-art equipment.

Mel Mason, the school's head of science, says subjects across the curriculum have been improved. "We've got more teachers, classes are smaller, IT resources have increased and we've got new labs," he says.

"Sometimes it's hard to convince students that later in life it will have been beneficial to have studied science. They look at pop groups or sports stars and they want to be like them. Music and sport are 'cool' subjects, but it may be harder to get well paid."

In the last few years, science has not only suffered from the stigma that it is only for the 'mega-brainy' but health and safety regulations means teachers have had to think up more imaginative ways to keep pupils interested.

At Pershore High School, where sixth formers were learning how to use DNA last week, head of biology Jennifer Pritchard says: "There are stringent controls so it's well within the law.

"Everything does have to be assessed for hazards. There is a level of risk and, of course that's something you can't avoid completely. There are safety controls but you can't be certain young children are doing what they are being told to do."

Back at Nunnery Wood, the GCSE students have their own ideas about why science is so important.

"It's about everyday life stuff that we need to know," says Anas Finck, aged 16.