The PM opens the interactive gallery that makes science fun and exciting for children, while announcing initiatives to inspire the next generation of scientists.
Ed Yong
“I have seen the future and it works.” Those were the words of Prime Minister Gordon Brown (quoting George Bernard Shaw) as he officially opened the refurbished Launchpad gallery at London’s Science Museum on Tuesday.
Since its first opening in 1986, Launchpad has been the Museum’s most popular gallery, but £4 million and a much wider space have given it a facelift for the 21st century. “The old gallery was starting to show its age,” says ‘explainer’ Stephen Moorhouse. “This new one is bright, shiny and embraces new technology.”
New funds for science education
The opening is just the start of things to come. The PM, together with Culture Secretary James Purnell, announced that the National Museum of Science and Industry, of which the Science Museum is a part, will receive a further £13 million towards refurbishing its other exhibition spaces.
Teachers will be offered £500 incentives to complete a specialist physics, chemistry or maths course, while a new national competition during National Science and Engineering Week will encourage young people to showcase their talents. In schools, £8 million will be earmarked for developing a science and technology club in every schools within 5 years.
Explaining and exploring
The Museum worked with engineers, artists and designers to create over 50 new interactive exhibits that bring the science of textbooks and classrooms to life. Visitors can launch a hydrogen-powered rocket, capture their shadow on a luminescent wall or watch pieces of dry ice release plumes of gas as they dance manically around a pool.
Gordon Brown said, “I know as a parent how hard it is to answer some of the most simple questions like ‘Where does rain come from?’ or ‘Why don’t people fall off the earth if it’s round?’. Exhibitions like this help children to find out the answers themselves.”
So-called explainers are on hand to help with the more difficult concepts behind the fun and games. “Some of us have acting backgrounds, some have scientific ones, “ says Moorhouse. “The important thing is that we’re happy talking to complete strangers.”
The explainers’ enthusiasm perfectly complements the sparse explanations that accompany the exhibits–this is a gallery that eschews didactic teaching and encourages exploration. “I don’t think the children think they’re learning but they’ll pick up a lot of stuff just by being excited and inspired to ask questions,” says Dr Emily Scott-Dearing, Project Leader for Launchpad. “My childhood visits to the original Launchpad gallery certainly fired my enthusiasm for science and I’ve met scientists who directly attribute their careers in the field to the Launchpad experience.”
Shaping the inventors of tomorrow
Even adult scientists, grizzled by years of grant applications and struggling experiments, will find something to enjoy here, particularly in the Social Light exhibit by Californian artist Scott Snibbe. It is deceptively simple; a camera projects rainbow stripes and other backgrounds against a blank wall. But walk in front of it, and your shadow alters the pattern, acting as a lens, mirror or prism.
It’s this sense of fun and wonder that Launchpad aims to cultivate in its target audience of 8–14 year olds. In his speech, Brown stressed the need to inspire this next generation of scientists. “All the technology we now take for granted was science-fiction in the 1930s and the astonishing revolution in technology since then is due in a large part to the great tradition of scientific inventiveness in this country,” he said. “The children who are learning here today, I know, will be the scientists and inventors of tomorrow. They will ensure that we as a nation continue to lead as a result of what is being done here.”
The new Launchpad project is sponsored and funded by Shell, Nintendo, the Garfield Weston Foundation and the Zochonis Charitable Trust. Launchpad opens to the public on 24 November.
Image Copyright, Science Museum/Science & Society Picture Library