Family Days Out: UK’s Best Science Venues and Events
by Tracey Davies
Mum, how do you make a rainbow? Why don’t fish drown? Can elephants jump? What do clouds taste like? Gah! Why do kids ask so many questions?
With the onslaught of clever TV shows such as ‘Brainiac’ and ‘Nina and the Neurons’ and proliferation of after-school science workshops, even younger kids are developing a passion for all things scientific. The following attractions and events will help inspire your budding young Newtons – and perhaps help answer some of those trickier questions they insist on posing…
London
London's Science Museum is one of the capital’s very best family days out – and a free one to boot (save special exhibitions, activities and IMAX screenings). Especially for little ones are The Garden – a hands-on (and rather soggy) area for under-5s – and the Launch Pad encouraging 8-14 year olds to make their own electricity, build an arch bridge, freeze their own shadows and more besides. Best of all are the museum’s famous sleepovers, with workshops, science shows and an IMAX film all before bed.
If you can’t get to London, let London come to you with the Science Museum Live Show tour.
Brighton
The hip seaside resort’s annual Science Festival offers up live events, workshops and family fun days for three weeks each February or March. Inspire older kids with an Early Electronics workshop or get the whole family mucky at the Bright Sparks Family Day.
Oxford
Open Saturdays and school holidays, the Oxford Live Science Centre is great for all the family – along with visiting exhibitions such as Wallace and Gromit’s Invention Centre, there’s a permanent Discovery Zone ideal for mini-brainiacs.
Rotherham, Yorkshire
The Magna Science Centre, the UK’s first science adventure centre, is a huge fun-filled land of learning based around four ‘gadget-filled pavilions’ with elemental themes: earth, air, wind and fire. And when all that fun education gets too much, the huge water park in the grounds will cool kids down.
Halifax, Yorkshire
A sort of Disneyland for young scientists, Eureka! The National Children’s Museum is a super-hands-on museum aimed at under-11s that not only encourages kids to touch the exhibits but motivates them to explore their environment through sound, space, body and the senses.
Newcastle
Like a smaller and more approachable version of London’s Science Museum (see above), Newcastle’s Science Centre within its Centre for Life science village has lots of wonderful themed interactive displays, plus a motion ride, a planetarium, daily science shows, and – new in 2011 – an under-7s hands-on play area. The city also hosts an annual Science Festival each March.
Edinburgh
If you want to know why trumping cows are bad for the environment, or why cabbage juice is used in science experiments, check out the numerous live events at the annual Science Festival held Edinburgh each April, which includes science-based street theatre, hands-on chemistry labs and live experiments.
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