Science Museum, London
Launch day of Launchpad at the Science Museum and the new gallery is bursting with families. In every direction there are children enthusiastically pushing and pulling on levers, throwing balls, shouting instructions, listening intently and looking closely.
This is the fourth incarnation of the Launchpad gallery, which first opened in 1986. The gallery has always focused on interactivity and physics and this new version remains true to form. It is larger than the old gallery and encompasses a broader range of physics concepts.
Launchpad aims to encourage visitors to ask questions and make sense of the science that makes our world work. It does this through a series of more than 50 hands-on exhibits. They are organised into six themes, each introduced by a question that is posed through a large wall graphic.
Do you have to force something to move it? Can you ever see a sound? Is magnetism electrifying? Could the world run out of energy? What makes materials stretchy? Where does light go to?
The Science Museum has created an experiential gallery from start to finish. Those familiar with science interactives will recognise much of the content, as it draws on old favourites from science centres across the world.
Many of the interactives add a new dimension to an old idea. The triple vortex exhibit demonstrates, in a visually stunning way, that three spinning liquids each with different viscosity form different vortexes when the same amount of energy is put in.
The Sound Bite exhibit asks you to bite down on a metal rod and then put your fingers in your ears. Then vibrations travel through your teeth and skull enabling you to clearly hear music that was previously undetectable - an odd sensation, but a great way to show that sounds travels better through solids than a gas.
Demonstrating these physics concepts in science centres is not new, but this particular delivery of them is. Also, most visitors will have never seen the old ideas, so why reinvent the wheel?
The scale of the interactives is impressive. A 30 metre-long echo tube stretches across the gallery in one direction, while a water rocket chute extends out in another direction. Underneath, visitors can build and then walk over a fairly large Arch Bridge exhibit.
There are almost no computer exhibits, which makes a nice change from other new galleries that often rely on educational computer games. Launchball, the only computer interactive present, was tiresome and complicated to use.
One parent dragged her son away from the game, fed up of waiting for him to figure out what to do. Visitors who wish to persevere with the game can email the link home and continue playing later.
Rocket-powered teddy
Although the key target audience for Launchpad is eight- to 14-year-olds, the physics tricks demonstrated should appeal to all ages. In fact some elements seemed more attractive to grown ups.
The On Your Move film, showing a mousetrap-style machine built by a team of engineers to demonstrate the many ways you can transfer energy, was continuously drawing a crowd of adults.
The machine looks homemade, which adds to its charm. It was captivating to watch the intricate workings of the machine, including a worried-looking teddy bear strapped to a rocket and a red-wine bottle pouring into glasses, each working like dominoes transferring energy onto the next.
The gallery also creates many opportunities for intergener-ational learning as a way to stimulate discussion. Several group exhibits had become a hive of activity involving team work between visitors.
This gallery has been designed based on visitor research that says people do not read exhibit labels. Interpretation has been kept to a minimum and where instructions are necessary, they are demonstrated on screen, allowing visitors to first watch how it is done.
This is accessible to most people and proved to be effective, as visitors were using exhibits correctly and not just pulling levers and whacking buttons.
In a gallery delivering this many mechanical exhibits, a few are bound to be temperamental. In this case it was the large wave machine and the Watch Water Freeze interactive, as both seemed to have given up on the first day.
Nothing but the science
Many of the Science Museum's explainers were busy presenting demonstrations or assisting with the use of the exhibits. Hopefully the number of explainers and their enthusiasm was not just a launch-day luxury.
Many new science exhibitions try to have exhibits that demonstrate abstract scientific concepts linked to technological applications or topical issues. This is based on the theory that relating concepts to familiar experiences helps visitors with their understanding and motivation to learn.
In places Launchpad does link abstract concepts to applications, such as the mechanisms to slow down rollercoasters and electronics that operate burglar alarms and hair dryers. However, for the most part it does not bother.
But it would not be fair to assume that because of this learning does not take place.
Launchpad will be a science teachers' dream, especially those teaching key stages 2 and 3. It tackles curriculum topics that they have indicated as being the most challenging to teach, such as forces.
It may receive criticism for teaching physics concepts in isolation, as some scientists and teachers feel this does not reflect the reality of how science works. For this reason, it is less appropriate to the new key stage 4 science curriculum, which focuses on this area.
Combining the best of the old ideas and 30 years of visitor research with new technology and high-quality build, has produced a gallery that challenges, fascinates and engages visitors from five to 95.
Launchpad has always been the most popular hands-on gallery at the Science Museum and will likely continue to be so. There was one word in particular that visitors repeatedly used while in the gallery and that was, "cool". Persuading people that science is cool is surely a main aim of science museums.
Vicky Brightman is the head of learning at the Horniman Museum in London
Project data
Cost: £4m (gallery, website and outreach)
Main funders: principal sponsor Shell, major sponsor Nintendo, additional funding from Garfield Weston Foundation, Zochonis Charitable Trust
Head of content: Anthony Richards Project leader Emily Scott-Dearing
Exhibits: Shawn Lani, Scott Snibbe, Engineered Arts
Launch day of Launchpad at the Science Museum and the new gallery is bursting with families. In every direction there are children enthusiastically pushing and pulling on levers, throwing balls, shouting instructions, listening intently and looking closely.
This is the fourth incarnation of the Launchpad gallery, which first opened in 1986. The gallery has always focused on interactivity and physics and this new version remains true to form. It is larger than the old gallery and encompasses a broader range of physics concepts.
Launchpad aims to encourage visitors to ask questions and make sense of the science that makes our world work. It does this through a series of more than 50 hands-on exhibits. They are organised into six themes, each introduced by a question that is posed through a large wall graphic.
Do you have to force something to move it? Can you ever see a sound? Is magnetism electrifying? Could the world run out of energy? What makes materials stretchy? Where does light go to?
The Science Museum has created an experiential gallery from start to finish. Those familiar with science interactives will recognise much of the content, as it draws on old favourites from science centres across the world.
Many of the interactives add a new dimension to an old idea. The triple vortex exhibit demonstrates, in a visually stunning way, that three spinning liquids each with different viscosity form different vortexes when the same amount of energy is put in.
The Sound Bite exhibit asks you to bite down on a metal rod and then put your fingers in your ears. Then vibrations travel through your teeth and skull enabling you to clearly hear music that was previously undetectable - an odd sensation, but a great way to show that sounds travels better through solids than a gas.
Demonstrating these physics concepts in science centres is not new, but this particular delivery of them is. Also, most visitors will have never seen the old ideas, so why reinvent the wheel?
The scale of the interactives is impressive. A 30 metre-long echo tube stretches across the gallery in one direction, while a water rocket chute extends out in another direction. Underneath, visitors can build and then walk over a fairly large Arch Bridge exhibit.
There are almost no computer exhibits, which makes a nice change from other new galleries that often rely on educational computer games. Launchball, the only computer interactive present, was tiresome and complicated to use.
One parent dragged her son away from the game, fed up of waiting for him to figure out what to do. Visitors who wish to persevere with the game can email the link home and continue playing later.
Rocket-powered teddy
Although the key target audience for Launchpad is eight- to 14-year-olds, the physics tricks demonstrated should appeal to all ages. In fact some elements seemed more attractive to grown ups.
The On Your Move film, showing a mousetrap-style machine built by a team of engineers to demonstrate the many ways you can transfer energy, was continuously drawing a crowd of adults.
The machine looks homemade, which adds to its charm. It was captivating to watch the intricate workings of the machine, including a worried-looking teddy bear strapped to a rocket and a red-wine bottle pouring into glasses, each working like dominoes transferring energy onto the next.
The gallery also creates many opportunities for intergener-ational learning as a way to stimulate discussion. Several group exhibits had become a hive of activity involving team work between visitors.
This gallery has been designed based on visitor research that says people do not read exhibit labels. Interpretation has been kept to a minimum and where instructions are necessary, they are demonstrated on screen, allowing visitors to first watch how it is done.
This is accessible to most people and proved to be effective, as visitors were using exhibits correctly and not just pulling levers and whacking buttons.
In a gallery delivering this many mechanical exhibits, a few are bound to be temperamental. In this case it was the large wave machine and the Watch Water Freeze interactive, as both seemed to have given up on the first day.
Nothing but the science
Many of the Science Museum's explainers were busy presenting demonstrations or assisting with the use of the exhibits. Hopefully the number of explainers and their enthusiasm was not just a launch-day luxury.
Many new science exhibitions try to have exhibits that demonstrate abstract scientific concepts linked to technological applications or topical issues. This is based on the theory that relating concepts to familiar experiences helps visitors with their understanding and motivation to learn.
In places Launchpad does link abstract concepts to applications, such as the mechanisms to slow down rollercoasters and electronics that operate burglar alarms and hair dryers. However, for the most part it does not bother.
But it would not be fair to assume that because of this learning does not take place.
Launchpad will be a science teachers' dream, especially those teaching key stages 2 and 3. It tackles curriculum topics that they have indicated as being the most challenging to teach, such as forces.
It may receive criticism for teaching physics concepts in isolation, as some scientists and teachers feel this does not reflect the reality of how science works. For this reason, it is less appropriate to the new key stage 4 science curriculum, which focuses on this area.
Combining the best of the old ideas and 30 years of visitor research with new technology and high-quality build, has produced a gallery that challenges, fascinates and engages visitors from five to 95.
Launchpad has always been the most popular hands-on gallery at the Science Museum and will likely continue to be so. There was one word in particular that visitors repeatedly used while in the gallery and that was, "cool". Persuading people that science is cool is surely a main aim of science museums.
Vicky Brightman is the head of learning at the Horniman Museum in London
Project data
Cost: £4m (gallery, website and outreach)
Main funders: principal sponsor Shell, major sponsor Nintendo, additional funding from Garfield Weston Foundation, Zochonis Charitable Trust
Head of content: Anthony Richards Project leader Emily Scott-Dearing
Exhibits: Shawn Lani, Scott Snibbe, Engineered Arts
