An archaeologist showing a boy a skull. Copyright Dover Museum

Science

Take science out of the classroom and into the museum.

Explore new and exciting ways of learning in the less formal environment of a museum.
Provide a context for problem-solving activities.
Find out about the historical and social contexts in which scientists work (e.g., local history of a mine).
There may be opportunities to reconstruct demonstrations or historic experiments.
Museums can also supply supporting material for the 'Ideas and Evidence' component of the curriculum.
Science projects can be easily combined with:
- Art and Design
- Design and Technology
- English and Literacy
- Maths and Numeracy

Use Local Museums

Many local museums have a natural history gallery with collections of taxidermy and/or geology.

Key Stages 1/2

SEARCH, Hampshire Museums' hands-on centre for natural sciences offers:

two hour sessions led by museum staff in topics such as animal classification (Key Stage 1 & Key Stage 2), skeletons & movement (Key Stage 1 & Key Stage 2), and rocks & soils (Key Stage 2)
an early years workshop 'Museums for Beginners: Animal Antics' for 3-5 year old children.

Milestones, Hampshire's living history museum can cover physical science and offers two hour sessions led by museum staff for KS2 children. For example, 'In Steam' (upper KS2) and 'Chains, Frames and Bicycle Wheels' (lower KS2) let pupils explore how the world works through modelling, investigation and hypothesis.

The Museum of the History of Science, Oxford offers:

sessions on the Tudors and navigation
sessions on measurement using historical examples.

Key Stages 3/4

Museums may be able to provide new ideas and activities for the 'Ideas and Evidence' strand of the Science Curriculum. For instance, they can be well placed to offer an historical perspective on the development of ideas along with object-led evidence.

The Museum of the History of Science, Oxford offers:

tailored sessions for small groups on various aspects of the history of science related to the curriculum, including aspects of astronomy, early chemistry, early electricity, the development of penicillin and medicine
sessions focussing on 'Ideas and Evidence' such as the discovery of oxygen, and models of the universe.

Oxford University Museum of Natural History provides lots of workshops that support the Science Curriculum. They also have extensive electronic curriculum resources. The resources such as school visits, online learning, image banks etc. are organised by Key Stage.

SLIME

Science Links in Museum Education (SLIME) South East is a network of people in museums and other related organisations in the South East who have an interest or expertise in supporting Science. To find out more about SLIME go to the Learning section of this website and look at the Science page.