The Science Museum Group is the world’s leading alliance of science museums, welcoming over five million visitors each year to five sites: the Science Museum in London; the National Railway Museum in York; the Science and Industry Museum in Manchester; the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford; and Locomotion in Shildon.
The Science Museum has been stimulating visitor’s curiosity in science and technology with the use of working models to explain scientific principles for a long time. In fact the world’s first national museum gallery dedicated to children opened at the museum in 1931. The Commission's Special Award gave them the funding to continue this ethos, by including a large-scale model of an orrery in their latest version, Wonderlab: The Equinor Gallery.
The Orrery sits in the centre of the gallery with over 50 other hands-on exhibits, which has received 1,448,000 visitors since opening. Their engaging Explainers bring these exhibits to life through facilitated demonstrations and live experiments. The gallery enriches learning and invites visitors to ‘think like a scientist’ – to be curious, to look closely at details and to be creative.
© Plastiques Photography, shared courtesy of the Science Museum
