Science Museum opens its digital doors during lockdown

To Start the New Year, @ScienceMuseum opens its digital doors during lockdown

• A wealth of engaging learning resources for children and their parents/carers from collaborations with BBC Bitesize to activities, games and apps perfect for indoors.

• Whilst the museum doors are closed for now, the incredible Science Museum Group Collection remains open to explore from home, including some extraordinary stories about the science and technology hidden in our homes. 

• Brand new public events taking place online include a series of Climate Talks beginning 28 January and featuring Dr Jane Goodall, Dr Hannah Fry, Tim Peake, Helen Sharman, and more. 

• A range of fun and educational toys, games, gadgets, puzzles, science experiment kits and books are available from the online shop. Browse the Big Bang Winter Sale for up to 75% off selected toys, clothing and homeware. 

 To start the new year, and ignite curiosity during a new lockdown, Science Museum Group is bringing the wonder of science to the public at home with a wealth of digital content to help beat the winter blues.

The Science Museum Group’s digital platforms are virtual treasure-troves, through which audiences can find inspiring stories of scientific achievement, delve into our incredible collection online or through videos and 3D models, 360 tours and virtual exhibition guides, hear from scientific pioneers, venture behind the scenes at our museum stores, explore fun activities to try at home or simply have fun playing our online games. 

EDUCATION RESOURCES
The Science Museum Group’s free learning resources offer a host of fun and educational activities for home-schooling parents and carers, teachers, and children to learn on their own. Activities range from science experiments using ingredients from the kitchen cupboard, to arts and craft activities including making your own periscope and pinball machine. 

The Science Museum Group has also joined forces with BBC Bitesize Daily to bring the thrills of science into living rooms across the country with hands-on activities to try at home, from making instant ice cream to using water to defy the laws of gravity, and spectacular demonstrations from the Science Museum’s Wonderlab: The Equinor Gallery. The special lockdown lessons will be broadcast from Monday 11 – Friday 15 January, with primary school lessons delivered from 9am on CBBC and secondary lessons from 1pm on BBC Two, as well as online. 

Meanwhile a range of free games and apps designed to encourage children to think like a scientist are available online, including the ever-popular Launchball and Rugged Rovers. The newest addition is My Robot Mission AR, a fun skills-building app created in partnership with Factory 42, where budding engineers can use augmented reality to build their own robot to help overcome future world problems, all within the backdrop of their home or back garden. 

VIRTUAL EVENTS
Throughout 2021, the Science Museum Group is hosting a series of Climate Talks – free, virtual events connecting audiences with a distinguished line-up of international speakers as they discuss how to tackle the problems facing our communities due to climate change. Kicking off on Thursday 28 January, 18:30-19:45, mathematician and broadcaster Dr Hannah Fry chairs a panel of experts – including famed conservationist Dr Jane Goodall – to explore the big question Climate Change: Why Should We Care? Prepare to delve into the science, hear uncomfortable facts about the state of our planet and be inspired to take action by efforts from across the globe which are beginning to make a real difference. Climate Talks are recommended for ages 14+ or KS3 and above. All events are free, but ticket booking is essential. 

On Thursday 21 January, 18:30-19:30, Science Museum Group Chief Executive Sir Ian Blatchford is joined in conversation by Labour MP and author Chris Bryant to discuss his latest book The Glamour Boys: The Secret Story of the Rebels Who Fought for Britain to Defeat Hitler which tells the story of the remarkable contribution to Britain’s involvement in the Second World War made by a group of young, queer British MPs. Science Museum’s curator of technology and engineering Dr Elizabeth Bruton will chair this one-off online event that delves into an extraordinary story of unsung bravery at a defining moment in Britain’s history. The event is free, but ticket booking is essential. 

SCIENCE MUSEUM GROUP COLLECTION
While our five museums are closed, the incredible Science Museum Group Collection – and the fascinating stories it contains – remains open online. Currently we’re exploring the extraordinary stories hidden in our homes, with interesting articles written by our curators about the history of everyday items from light bulbs to cups of tea and vacuum cleaners.  

Online audiences can search our collection or use the Random Object Generator and Museum in a Tab to discover remarkable items from across our vast collection. With 100,000 photographs of objects in the collection now online, we recently launched Never Been Seen, a new webpage which shows objects that have never been seen online before. 

We also recently added the empty vial used to deliver the first Pfizer / BioNTech COVID-19 vaccination worldwide to the Science Museum Group Collection as part of our COVID-19 Collecting project. The empty vial will go on display in Medicine: The Wellcome Galleries – the world’s largest medical galleries – at the Science Museum in early 2021, as an addition to our displays about vaccination and infectious diseases. 

NEW ON THE BLOG
On the Science Museum blog, you can find stories of scientific discovery, uncover unsung heroes and discover fascinating reads with the new Science Museum Book Club series, kicking off with Booker Prize shortlisted ‘Real Life’ by Brandon Taylor. You can also follow the Science Museum Group blog for regular updates on the science of coronavirus, sustainability and much more. 

This blog post explores all the ways you can interact with our museums from home.

GIFT IDEAS
The Science Museum shop remains open online. Browse the January sale, or check out a wide range of gifts, books, games, toys, science kits and more to keep you inspired.