Explore the museums funded through Places of science 2024

Using 3D scanning to improve access and education to heritage objects

Beaminster Museum is a volunteer run community museum in West Dorset, keen to strengthen links to the local community and nearby museums. As a relatively new museum, (founded 1995) much of the historical and archaeological material from the area is in other museums. 

The museum plans to fill gaps in telling the story of their local community by using 3D scans and digital display to share material on display elsewhere, but also to use the material in new ways to help improve their educational offering. The scans will be used to tell the historical stories in a more interactive way to help appeal to a younger audience, especially the groups of local schoolchildren who visit, and for whom there are themed visits such as on the Iron Age, or recently on WW1 and a local Victoria Cross recipient (the first air based VC - William Rhodes Moorhouse), and share more material to a wider public audience.

The initial focus will be on the Roman Fort of Waddon Hill, the material from which is scattered between Dorchester, Bridport and Beaminster, and on the local National Nature Reserve fossils, from Horn Park Quarry.

The Braintree Museum Urban Garden project

The Braintree Museum Urban Garden Project will extend the Museum into the garden. Combining the museum's natural and local history collections with the urban garden to inspire, engage and advocate the significance of John Ray’s (1627-1705) natural history legacy and the climate crisis through people-centred engagement, making the collections even more accessible to all and a vehicle to encourage dialogue on global warming and climate change.

New engaging and accessible interpretation will be created through working with local schools and an illustrator to make outdoor garden display panels and interactive elements exploring John Ray's scientific methods and discoveries in the context of his work in the community where he was born, lived and studied.

The project will support year-round volunteering, upon which the Urban Garden depends, backing the maintenance, gardening and nature monitoring. It will be open to all to come and help, hoping to inform and inspire learning around nature and science.

Getting the measure of William Bedwell: maths, measurement and the Arabic world

Bruce Castle Museum will explore the science of geometry and how it contributes to our understanding of our place in the world. The project centres around the figure of William Bedwell (1561-1632) a mathematician and leading early Arabic scholar; and uses his story to explore measurement, scale, shape, and pattern.

A new exhibition will explore Bedwell’s life in Tottenham, how he popularised the ‘carpenter’s rule’ and his leading role in the study of Arabic. Maps, land surveys and architectural plans from the collections will be displayed alongside artworks with geometric influences and designs.

The project will highlight Islamic achievements in mathematics and art, as children investigate scale, shape, and pattern through ‘measurement in the museum’ activities. To complement the exhibition, a new schools’ workshop will be created, and a short programme of family workshops and public talks delivered.

Communicating conservation science at Chippenham Museum

Chippenham Museum will shine a light on how science is used in the care and conservation of collections. This area of work is rarely seen as it happens behind the scenes in the Museum.

Working with conservators from Wiltshire Council’s Conservation and Museums Advisory Service (CMAS), the museum will explore the chemical complexities and physical phenomenon that play a role in the preservation of museum objects.

A small team of volunteers from the Museum will work with CMAS to get an understanding of the science of decay, the impact of environmental factors and be trained in practical treatments and methods to look after the collections.

This learning will be shared in a series of public sessions giving visitors an up-close look at collection care in action, where the project team will undertake their work in the Museum galleries and discuss the scientific rationale behind what they’re doing.

The evolving science of digging up the past

In partnership with two Coleraine primary schools, the project will introduce Key Stage II children to local history and heritage through archaeological sites in the area. This will include sites investigated by Andrew McLean May. During two five-day summer schools, up to 50 children will explore the evolving science of archaeology.

Using Mountsandel and other local archaeological sites, they will explore the ways in which evolving scientific techniques have been used to add to our understanding of prehistoric society and culture. They will gain an understanding of how hunter-gatherer societies depended on the land for survival, how man’s changing interaction with the landscape has led to the current environmental crisis and how we might contribute to change.

The children will visit the Ulster Museum, where May’s collection of artefacts is housed, providing them with a wider insight into the lives of ancient man through the artefacts in the national collection.

Our disappearing nature!

Our Disappearing Nature! will survey local plant species, contrasting modern findings with Rev G. Cartlidge's 1915 observations in History of Newbold Astbury. This project will explore if changes in landscape and climate have impacted local plant growth in the last century. The museum will work with local community groups, schools, and the public to deliver this project. 

A new learning session will be introduced, engaging young people with hands-on exploration. Students will be tasked with finding and identifying plants in various green spaces in Congleton. Using historical maps, students will identify if plants are still growing in the same areas as in 1915, or new areas, and why. Seed packets will be available for students to plant and study back at school.

The project enriches community understanding of environmental challenges, through active participation and reflection. The museum aims to create a catalogue of findings, and to work with local groups to reinstate local plants which have been lost. 

Jenner and the Oxford vaccine

Having recently redesigned their education workshops for schools in conjunction with Sean Elias of Pandemic Science Group, Jenner Institute, Gilbert Group, Dr Jenner’s House were keen to make this exciting workshop accessible for those are geographically remote, or where travel costs are prohibitive. 

While their new outreach workshop mirrors exactly their on-site offer, the Museum was keen to give pupils the full experience of visiting Jenner’s historic home in Berkeley, Gloucestershire. To this end their grant will fund a new short by Street Films, creating a virtual trip to meet Dr Jenner at The Chantry, from where vaccination spread across the world 228 years ago.

The combination of hands-on workshop, giving pupils an insight into the decision making and processes within a modern wet lab, alongside the history and provenance of vaccination, creates a well-rounded STEM outreach project which the Museum believes will inspire and encourage people to #thinklikejenner

Cures from the garden: 18th century medicine at home

Epworth Old Rectory was the childhood home of John Wesley. John was passionate about improving the wellbeing of everyday people and wrote a book called Primitive Physick (1747), which contains what he describes as 800 “tried and tested cures” that could be made at home using herbs and plants from the garden. The Old Rectory’s Physick Garden contains herbs and plants that feature in Wesley’s book.

This project will uncover the ‘hidden’ stories of people’s health in the 18th century, and the cures available to them. Working in partnership with a local artist, the wider community and volunteers, engaging and accessible signage will be created, with an accompanying trail in the Physick Garden. The interpretation will bring the stories of everyday people during this era to life, while also highlighting the similarities - and differences - to health, therapies and cures experienced by people today.

Migrant journeys

Migrant Journeys is an exciting new project centring around the theme of migration. The house was the home of 18th century naturalist Gilbert White, who made pioneering discoveries into the movements of migratory wildlife species. He was one of the first to investigate through ‘watching narrowly’ where swallows and swifts went during the winter when colder conditions approached and began to consider the possibility of long-distance migration.

Just as birds and insects migrate, people are moving across the globe. Collaborating with the Rural Refugee Network, a local Hampshire based charity supporting youths aged 16-19 who have come to the UK, a group of young people will be engaged in workshops and activities to inspire knowledge of British wildlife and promoting a nature connection. Their creative outputs will be displayed in the Legacy Gallery, for the public to enjoy. 

Amazing discoveries planetarium project

The home of the Herschel Museum, 19 New King Street, is a unique address where astronomy, science and music come together in one house. It is the place of a discovery that doubled size of the known Solar System and the historical collection of the museum tells the story of the Herschel family, making links to current science and space exploration.

The Planetarium project is an integral part of the Museum’s activity programme, enabling the museum to reach a wider audience. Planetarium sessions will be run for local schools, community groups and families. New software will enable the museum to run presenter led shows focussing on various aspects of Space, telling stories from other cultures and making links to current scientific discoveries. With changing content in the planetarium, the museum will be able to react to the interests of the audience and make the shows more relevant to them, encouraging an on-going interest in the sciences. 

Exploring the science behind Strathpeffer's Victorian spa

The Highland Museum of Childhood is located in the Old Victorian Railway Station of the once bustling Spa village of Strathpeffer. In its heyday, Strathpeffer was a renowned health resort, famous for its mineral spa waters, unique climate and geography, and range of recreational and sporting opportunities.

Through this project, the Highland Museum of Childhood will work with local partners to create opportunities within the community, that will help people explore the science behind Strathpeffer Spa. People will be invited to engage with the project through workshops and a programme of co-curation of new stories to be shared through the museum’s exhibitions. The project will run between June 2024 and October 2025.

Natural curators

Have you ever stroked an otter, felt how prickly a hedgehog's spines are, and seen how jewel like a kingfisher is? The museum's Natural History collection will provide the inspiration for KS1to KS3 children to discover the animal world.

Utilising the museum's extensive natural history collection, children will be engaged once again with nature through a series of workshops, both in the classroom, the museum or outdoor setting. Afterwards, the children will be encouraged to express their learning either in an art or literary form, which can go on public display within the museum.

Tewkesbury is a unique town, as it is where the River Severn and the River Avon converge, a wonderful blend of rural and urban landscape, where humans and wildlife live side by side. As a Natural History Museum, the aim is to involve the local community in the museum displays and appreciating the nature that is on their doorsteps.

Matilda's laboratory challenge

Mid-Antrim Museum will deliver STEM curriculum linked workshops in partnership with Sentinus on the themes of climate and raising environmental awareness. Locally the workshops will reference the life and work of botanist Matilda Knowles (1864-1933) who was born in the local area and considered the founder of modern studies of Irish lichens. 

Primary school pupils will engage with the museum’s collection of children’s drawings and poems from the 1930s to support interactive discussion around seasons, weather and climate, leading on to exploring botany and lichen which can be an indicator of environmental pollution. Pupils will learn the difference between weather and climate, the causes and effects of climate change and how human activity can influence this and deliver a digital activity using BBC Micro: bits. 

Milford House, the story of electricity and the wonder of its age

Milford House in Co. Armagh Northern Ireland was the wonder of its age; the creation of Robert G. McCrum who revolutionised the linen industry (by inventing double damask linen). Famous as the first house in Ireland to be lit with hydreoelectricity, it had twelve bedrooms, six bathrooms and even a proper waterfall in the Dining Room. People came from miles around to see the house lit up at night, though sadly, all the gadgets, light fittings etc. were lost when it became a hospital in the 20th century.

By acquiring and reinstating the magnificent historic light fittings, it not only restores the grandeur of the rooms but moreover tells the story of electricity and how R.G McCrum converted a nearby mill into a power station to generate electricity. This tells the story of science and innovation providing something unique to visitors.

Forging links with science at Much Hadham Forge Museum

Hadham’s Forge has served the local village communities since at least 1811 and still works today, set within the wider museum. This grant will fund an external professional to research, trial and produce a family and school friendly gallery-based activity, to highlight and explore the links to science in the collection of tools and equipment. 

The museum will host a “Forge Experience Weekend” in collaboration with the resident blacksmith. Over 50 people, irrespective of age, will have the rare opportunity to have a go at blacksmithing and take home a creation of their making. Participants will learn the basics of how the forge works, what the equipment and tools do, and how materials respond to the forces and heat applied.

Developing this new immersive and dynamic offer for visitors will spark the inspiration for a future generation to explore blacksmithing further.

A shroud for Mother Nature: is Dartmoor dying?

Dartmoor is special and its beautiful landscape has been loved by generations of people existing on this land’s riches. Dartmoor National Park was created in1951 but it does not own the land and works with partners to manage the landscape and biodiversity. Currently nearly 80% of its Sites of Scientific Interest have ‘unfavourable’ status.

The Museum wishes to create a neutral forum where all these different partners can address the threats to the Moor and showcase their ongoing works to conserve its landscapes, flora and fauna via display boards, film and artefacts.

The centre piece will be a Dartmoor wool, handmade shroud, created by artisan Yuli Somme and workshops will be held in July 2024 to decorate it with felted representations of dying Dartmoor.

The exhibition will run from March to November 2025 and will include a wall of promises where volunteers and visitors can pledge to do something to save Dartmoor. 

Ground Nest Fest 2024

Ground Nest Fest is a week-long festival taking place in and around Settle, North Yorkshire. We will celebrate our ground nesting birds and their habitats, which are so distinctive to this area of the Dales.

Working with artists, storytellers, musicians and poets, local communities will be inspired by local bird life and their habitats. Working with scientists at the cutting edge of habitat restoration, these communities will take action to make a difference to our landscapes.

Ground Nest Fest is a partnership between the Museum of North Craven Life, Wild Ingleborough and Yorkshire Peat Partnership. The festival features contributions from Curlew Action, Settle Stories, and PBA Applied Ecology.

The science of historic ice-cream: a hands-on workshop

Experienced food historian, Dr Neil Buttery, will research and develop hands-on ice-cream making workshops. They will connect young people with the stories of science and local social history, bringing Worcester’s porcelain collection to life. What did ice pails, sorbet dishes and extravagant moulds contain? How did they function and who used them?  

Ice-cream in the UK dates back to a 1671 Windsor Castle feast. Before refrigeration, country-estate ice houses were built to store ice for food preservation and desserts. 18th and 19th century ice-cream, sorbet and dessert stories, reflect changing tastes, fashion and manners, availability and affordability of food, as well as the history of sugar. 

Participants will have a go at churning and using fun vintage moulds, such as swans and mussels. Choosing Worcestershire fruit to accompany the ice-cream, will introduce discussions on seasonality and sourcing. Staff and volunteers will also be trained to deliver workshops at the Museum and in the community.

Urban microclimates and their potential impact on summer sport in the future

In 2022 the Museum of Welsh Cricket, based at the home of Glamorgan County Cricket Club in Cardiff, received a Places of Science grant to explore the concept of global warming with local school-children and to look at ways by which cricket grounds of the future could become sustainable and eco-friendly in a warmer and wetter world.

Receiving a second grant from The Royal Society will allow the museum to expand on the huge success of the initial project, besides developing a data collection exercise in central Cardiff which will illustrate to the pupils one of the trigger mechanisms behind rising temperatures at the local scale. This is the so-called “urban heat island” and this project will allow children to collect readings of the air temperatures along a 2.5 km transect from the city centre into the parkland where the cricket ground is located.

This will allow the children to estimate by how much the central areas are warmer, as well as suggesting reasons why. The project will also discuss how actions could be taken in the future to reduce this effect, and how these actions would work in tandem with the adaptions to the cricket stadia and people’s behaviour, as recommended in the first project.

"The Rescuers" tackle climate change

“The Rescuers” Tackle Climate Change project brings awareness of the importance of a sustainable Scotland for the 21st century to over 200 upper primary pupils across Midlothian. The project is a partnership between National Mining Museum Scotland, Midlothian Council, and Raising Aspirations in Science Education (RAiSE) Scotland. It further aligns with the Scottish Government’s “Target 2030” for sustainable learning settings and the Curriculum for Excellence.

The project promotes children’s curiosity, interest, and involvement in environmental sustainability through hands-on learning activities. These activities include digital engagement by researching zero-emission vehicles, developing coding skills using Vex-Go machines, and designing their own sustainable vehicles or machines.

The pupil’s final designs will be showcased in an exhibition at the National Mining Museum, where they will be seen by the local community. In turn, this extends sustainable learning to the community. Entries will then be judged by STEM and Museum professionals in a school-wide competition. 

Beneath our feet: exploring the geology and history of North Lincolnshire, from the ground up

Preserving geological material at risk from ironstone mining was one of the founding concerns of North Lincolnshire Museum in the early 1900s. The core collection now consists of approximately 5,000 local fossils and 2,000 rocks and minerals.

The Beneath Our Feet project will provide an exciting opportunity for local, KS2 schoolchildren to explore this fascinating collection. During a two-day workshop at the museum, children will: reflect on local land use past, present and future; work scientifically as they investigate rock and soil samples and get hands-on with artefacts from our fossil collection. Children will draw their thoughts together on the second day and interpret their experiences as they create a whole-class poem.

These poems will later be displayed throughout North Lincolnshire Museum as part of a poetry trail. The legacy of the project will also be extended as the resources are used to create future, science-based workshops.

Look closer, see the extraordinary

An exhibition showcasing the links between science and creativity, including the wonderful wildlife studies of Eileen Soper, and intricate ceramic birds of Eva Soper which raise awareness of local nature and habitats, encouraging closer observation and understanding.

Three contemporary artists will offer an insight into the scientific research carried out by creative industries today. Taking an experimental approach to materials, they each use traditional skills in new ways: Effie Burns creates beautiful botanical studies of locally sourced nature specimens uses solar plate printing and glass casting; textile artist Dr Elizabeth Gaston uses knit to investigate the use of colour and light to disrupt pattern perception, offering sustainable solutions to the impact of textile coloration; and marine biologist Dr Jane Pottas documents local seaweeds using cyanotype printing.

A series of intergenerational craft and science workshops exploring scientific principles will complement the exhibition.

Caring for our world

The Peace Museum explores often the untold stories of peace, peacemakers, social reform, and peace movements. As the museum enters a new phase in its history, it is essential to re-establish connections with its audiences, including schools. The Royal Society Places of Science funding will allow the museum to redevelop one of the school workshops - ‘Caring for Our World’.

The new session aims to engage pupils with the link between science and peace. Pupils will explore four themes which are blighting local communities and destroying the planet which are: climate change, litter, habitat loss and endangered animals. The sessions will encourage creativity and link both science and art as they use objects from the collection made by artists to highlight issues on the climate crisis. There is a range of beautifully made placards, textile banners, paintings, and postcards. Ten schools across the Bradford District will engage with these sessions. 

The Sunlight soap challenge

‘The Sunlight Soap Challenge’ is a new challenge for high schools designed to engage young people aged 11 – 14 in the world of STEM, where they will explore the world of science surrounding soap production with a focus on sustainability and historic significance in society.  

Launching in the village built on soap, the programme will engage three schools in the battle of suds. Groups will take part in facilitated visits of the village and museums before taking to designing their own soap product, starting from the make-up of the soap itself to the packaging, marketing, and distribution to present to a panel of experts. Winners of the challenge will be invited to create their very own soap prototype to display in a youth led pop up exhibit in the village’s SoapWorks museum.

The programme will be supported by key partners Liverpool Hope University, Liverpool’s School of Tropical Medicine and Unilever.

The science of Stubbs

A fun, interactive full day workshop exploring the temporary ‘Stubbs and the Horse in North Lincolnshire’ exhibition and objects displayed within the Rural Life Museum. Inspired by painter George Stubbs, local school pupils will be invited into a temporary vets surgery. They will spend the day investigating, learning and sketching all what lies beneath the skin of animals and humans.

Richard Hill

Richard Hill (1795-1872) was a prominent black abolitionist, naturalist and contemporary of Joseph Banks. He was born in Jamaica and educated at the grammar school in Horncastle, Lincolnshire, from where his father had emigrated some years before. Back in Jamaica, Hill became a civil servant, also collaborating with the naturalist Philip Henry Gosse on The Birds of Jamaica and A Naturalist’s Sojourn in Jamaica. Many of Hill’s other writings combine an interest in human and natural development.

This project will undertake research on Hill’s connections to naturalists such as Joseph Banks and Charles Darwin and how these intersected with slavery and abolition. These subjects will be the focus of a new exhibition. In addition, the society will host ‘citizen-science’ workshops on plant identification, collection, mounting, illustration and photography. Contemporary best practices will be compared to the practices of Hill and his network two hundred years ago.

Revitalising glass: connecting science and art. A sustainable approach to recycling and renewability.

The awarded grant establishes a vibrant family community space within Stourbridge Glass Museum, featuring educational resources, artist-led workshops, and science-based talks focused on promoting awareness of renewability and recycling, particularly concerning glass. These activities enable children to explore glass as a renewable resource, fostering sustainability and environmental consciousness.

Aligned with the mission of Stourbridge Glass Museum, situated on the restored grounds of the former Stuart Works glass factory, the project leverages the museum's extensive collections, providing insight into the evolution of glass production and its environmental impact.

The establishment of this community space expands the museum's educational outreach, offering an enriching learning environment that encourages curiosity among young visitors. The project showcases the diverse applications of glass, aiming to instil appreciation for its cultural and scientific relevance.

Mineral Minds

Orkneys Geology Under The Microscope is a showcase exhibition recognising the work of two under-celebrated geologists. Ted Kellock was an amateur geologist who prepared over 4000 thin section slides of rocks from all over the world. Prof Matthew Forster Heddle was Scotland's greatest mineralogist but is little known in his birthplace of Orkney.

The exhibition also involves pupils Dounby Community School in co-curating a section of the exhibition. The pupils are producing a display to show how rocks and minerals inspired local artists and craft makers. Events celebrating the exhibition theme will be run during September's Orkney International Science Festival.

Stromness Museum is one of Scotland's oldest independent museums and is a charity dependent on grant funding. 

Sun, sea and shifting sands: how the weather impacts the Teign Estuary

This project plans to take a fresh look at the way changing weather has affected the area. The mouth of the Teign Estuary is bounded by the town of Teignmouth and the village of Shaldon, boosted by a high level of seasonal of holidaymakers.

As a coastal area the weather impacts life daily and this will be explored by looking at it through the various lenses of art, history and science. The impact that the weather has had on the development of Teignmouth and Shaldon will be investigated. 

Teignmouth has grown from a small fishing village and saltworks to a coastal resort and a modern international port. The sea has provided food and trade to the area but has also threatened the fabric of the town. This project will explore the human response to these changes and the part that science has played in this response.

Criminal science and its relationship to social justice and community

Tetbury Police Museum and Courtroom aim to engage children and students, as well as their parents, in activities that bring to life the use of science in crime detection and justice. They will investigate how the science of policing and detection in the community has changed over the last 150 years. 

The day is an opportunity to get school students interested in science in a fun and challenging way through a set of engaging activities in a local arts centre. This will be followed up with an event in the museum to continue to encourage and engage students in forensic science and science in general.

The Tetbury Police Museum and Courtroom tells the story of the history of the Gloucestershire constabulary from 1839 to the present. The museum is home to a unique and fascinating collection of stories, photographs, objects and memorabilia and is free for all to visit.

Recycling paper: not a new invention

In 1890, Herbert Sanguinetti formed the British Paper Company to make new paper from paper waste at Frogmore Mill. Frogmore represents world changing paper innovation and the project seeks to educate and celebrate those scientific stories accessibly. The subject is timely; the application of paper and board is vital to the green agenda which has always been at the heart of paper production. From recycling rags to the use of waste paper, papermaking has a lengthy, powerful, environmental story to tell, key to which were the mills of the Gade Valley, Hertfordshire.

‘Recycling Paper: not a new invention’ will draw volunteers, staff and industry knowledge together, to produce a schools’ workshop, for future scientists and a digital exhibition for adults to be displayed on our website and within the museum. Research, interview and film production will be integral to the formation of co-curated outcomes to educate and encourage civic pride.

Diving into the future

Diving into the Future at The Diving Museum, Gosport is a collaborative project developing with local schools science based interpretation for new exhibitions. These ‘Talking Heads’ - short vox-pop style interviews with scientists - will play a key part in telling the story of diving in all its forms; commercial, research, exploration, sport and recreational. They will help explain to visitors the links between diving and science, such as Archimedes and Boyles Laws, technology, exploration and health.

The museum is working with a science communicator who will plan and deliver a Challenge Day. Based around a ‘Walk and Talk’ of the local area it will highlight science featured in the exhibitions e.g. flora and fauna, shipwrecks, the museum’s Air Source Heat Pump. This day is designed to inspire and inform pupils about science, and to help them identify who to interview. An oral historian will then support pupils to conduct the interviews and capture these as short films. 

The science of sound

The Red House in Aldeburgh was the home of composer Benjamin Britten and his partner, singer Peter Pears. It is now home to an award-winning education programme, connecting young people with music and heritage in engaging and innovative ways. The Red House will develop new education resources exploring the science of music for secondary students.

These resources will be trialled with local schools before becoming a regular part of the education programme. Day-long sessions will use the collections of Britten’s music and instruments to explore topics such as the physics of harmony - giving young people a new angle into science and a different perspective on music. 

Waving at Watchet

The award of the Places of Science Grant from the Royal Society has set the wheels in motion for this project, collaborating with the Balmoral Trust and beginning with a visit to the MV Balmoral cruise ship at Bristol.

The vessel will dry dock in April and the aim is to curate an exhibition that will explain the science behind Watchet’s harbour and explore the links between the two ports. The Severn estuary has provided the means to trade as far back as the 10th century and, while tourism still links us by road and rail, it will resume again by sea in 2025.

The construction of model boats will form the main family activity and a science theme related to the tides. This exhibition will encourage people to visit Watchet and the ‘Balmoral’. 

Inspiring Cornwall's minds and miners for our future

Mining has truly shaped the local Cornish landscape and its people. As china clay continues to be extracted around Wheal Martyn, so too is lithium. This development of new innovation and science in the local area brings with it opportunities, hopes and fears.

This engagement project will take the local community on a journey of discovery, exploring the mining heritage and the science that has shaped it to date, and then investigating what the future may hold for the area.

Through collaboration with several partners, the project will explore the modern mining practices of both clay and lithium, our relationship with the natural world and how best we can protect it. The museum will deliver a schools’ engagement programme, including a museum visit to showcase science and innovation from the past, outreach workshops and a STEM challenge competition. A digital interpretation point will be developed in the museum to showcase mining innovations.

Bilston journeys: exploring transport for a sustainable future

This project will develop and pilot a new education session and educational resources, for upper key stage two primary school pupils, delivered at Bilston Museum. The session will explore the region’s scientific and engineering heritage, through inter active, enquiry-based learning and creative activity.

Working with one local school over six workshops to explore how the region's industrial heritage was shaped by its mineral wealth; focusing on Bilston and Wolverhampton’s links to motor car and motorcycle manufacture, and the migration stories of people who moved from the commonwealth to support the industrial growth of the 1950s and 60s.

Pupils will explore these themes through different workshops, and engage with wider debates addressed in the Natural History Museum’s Our Broken Planet series; specifically, questions around fossil fuel emissions and how cars can become environmentally friendly.