Developing new experiences

In part 3 of this mini-series, design studio Thought Den show how they responded to an ambitious brief from the Science Museum Group.

In part 2 of this mini series we look at how we took the idea of a chat-based experience and developed it further to create our brief for a science capital-informed narrative driven game.

How do you bring a complex research-informed idea to a digital experience for children 7-13 years old… and make it engaging, fun and encouraging reflection on everyday life?

What we’ve learned about publishing our learning resources online.

I’ve recently attended a training session delivered by the Science Museum’s Enterprising Science project team around science capital and how we can use it in our work.

The Building Bridges project has been a 5-year (2012-2017)  partnership between the Science Museum and secondary schools from its London partner-boroughs and Reading.

The language we use around STEM, both verbal and visual, often reinforces the idea that it is for people who aren’t ‘like me’.

Whether it is on a school visit, as a family day out, or maybe through an experience online, there are many different reasons why museums and science centres are such great places for engaging people with science.

Over the past few months we, at the Science Museum, have been working in partnership with TES and the Arts Council England.

STEM engagement is at the heart of what we do in our museums, and science capital provides us with a research based insight which builds on our understanding of what influences and shapes people’s engagement and attitudes towards science.

In November 2016 we launched the first wave of our new and updated hands-on resources for use in the classroom or at home.

Science capital research has highlighted the need to create links between young people’s science experiences at school, home, and out of school (for example, in museums).