SCIENCE WEEK SUCCESS

The Museum hosted several schools as part of Science Week. Here's what the Students got up to during their visit.

Words: Laura Barclay Photos: Brooklands Museum

First Published June 2022

To celebrate Science Week and the theme of Growth, Brooklands Museum organised a unique programme of activities for our visiting school groups to experience the growth behind innovation, a core element of the Museum’s vision: inspiring people to shape the future through Brooklands’ history of innovation and endeavour.

Through its Learning and Engagement Programme, Brooklands Museum provides young people with the opportunity to discover the stories, qualities, skills and ideas of the pioneers and trailblazers working at Brooklands throughout the Twentieth century. Through these stories of what was accomplished at Brooklands, we aim to inspire people, especially those engaged in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) subjects to shape the future and solve the challenges the world faces today.

With this in mind, a brand-new package for Key Stage 3 pupils in Years 7 to 9 was developed. This programme challenged students to build battery-powered propeller racers with design, financial and time restraints imposed on them, mirroring many of the challenges faced by some of the heroes of the Brooklands racetrack and pioneering flying schools. The passion and enthusiasm they put into their mini projects was commendable and showed determination and ingenuity in overcoming these obstacles to create the fastest racers. Our Volunteers were tremendous, giving their time to deliver brand new workshops and tours that centred on four key points of interest:

• The Napier-Railton as a demonstration of how technology of any era is cutting edge and pushes limits to break boundaries.

• The Vickers Vimy, Hawker Harrier, and the First to the Fastest exhibition as examples of how determination and merging technologies of aviation and motoring can create world firsts.

• The Concorde and McLaren exhibits, to show how the work of many over decades can be distilled into high performance, one-of-a-kind machines that take on iconic status.

Launching water rockets into the sky and across the Track itself was a highlight of the week. Students worked in teams competing against each other using pressurised water in bottles to see who could fire their rockets the furtherst. We even had to make good use of the telehandler to collect some of the more enthusiastic water bottle rockets that tried to break free of the Finishing Straight, only to be stopped short by a rather pesky tree.

The theme of Growth this year really gave us an opportunity to bring to life the stories of the Museum and Track to show our schools that this site has been the backbone of some of the greatest innovation and endeavour not just within Britain but the world. From the Harrier to the BSA Path Racer, there have been more examples of growth in technology and development at Brooklands than any single site in the country.

All of the hard work was summed up in two bits of feedback we received. The first said: ‘I just wanted to let you know the children had an amazing time on their visit. Their teacher said it was the best trip they’ve had to Brooklands.’ While the second added: ‘It was a brilliant day out at Brooklands for us all. The children had a great day out and the lengths you went to so we could finally visit were really appreciated. We look forward to visiting you again!’ It’s fair to say Brooklands has been an inspiration once again.