A day of inventor’s training with Wallace and Gromit

The BBC and Aardman Animations Ltd (the people who make Wallace and Gromit) came up with an idea for some ‘Invention Sessions’ based on one of Wallace’s own inventions, ‘the run-about steam chair’ shown in Wallace and Gromit’s World of Invention to excite and inspire young inventors all over the country. After taking the sessions on the road to various shopping centres across the country they have now passed the baton on to a handful of science and discovery centres to continue what they began. Eureka! was chosen to be one of those centres – how exciting for us!

It was especially exciting for me and my colleague Jennie as we were the ones who got to go down to BBC television centre in London to meet Wallace and Gromit and learn all they had to teach us about delivering the sessions. Well, actually, we didn’t meet Wallace and Gromit but we did meet a very nice man called Nick who turned us all in to children and delivered a session especially for us. (Wallace and Gromit were looking on in the guise of giant cardboard cut outs).

It’s fun being a child; those of you who have read my blogs before will realise that it is a very easy transition for me. We explored a bit of science and technology, played an amusing game and made silly noises and generally got to know more about the run-about chair. It was fun! There were a dozen other people from places as far apart as At Bristol and W5 in Belfast. They were equally good at being children; it must be something about the job we do.

Later on we all had a go at building our own run-about chair, powered by a battery. The instructions are really clear but I still managed to put one piece on upside down; oops! It’s very easy to take put things right, tho’ so I soon had it working properly. I felt really proud of myself. Jennie also managed to build her chair successfully, as did all the other ‘children’.

Jill in London with her Runabout Steam Chair

After lunch we had a go at adapting the session to use at our own centres. Jennie and I thought of loads of things at Eureka! we could use as examples; even Archimedes and his bath.

It was a very long day; we had to catch the 6.30am train from Halifax and didn’t get back until 8.45pm. However, we both came back full of enthusiasm and ready to train up other enablers to bring the sessions to life.

The session are for children aged seven and above and every child that comes to one of the sessions will get a run-about chair kit to take home with them, courtesy of the BBC. They are limited edition and are sooooooo cool. I’m really looking forward to the sessions and especially giving out the kits at the end. It’s like being Santa - and it isn’t even Christmas!

Jill Ward is an Enabler at Eureka! The National Children’s Museum

Ringing in the ‘Noon Year’

Welcome to 2011! It’s a brand-spanking-shiny New Year that I’m sure is going to be full of all sorts of surprises and adventures!

So what were you doing on New Years Eve? I have no doubt that most of you went to some sort of party with all of your friends and families. If you’ve been to Eureka! before, and I’m sure that most of you have, you should know that us Enablers love nothing more than to have a good party, and for New Year’s eve 2010, that’s exactly what we did: we threw a party.

Now because Eureka! isn’t open at midnight for the ‘real’ New Year, we decided to call ours a ‘Noon’ Years Eve party, and celebrated at exactly 12 noon when Archimedes took his midday bath. We invited all of our friends to join in with the festivities and my word, did they come.

The Town Square in the Living and Working Together gallery was jam packed with boys, girls, mums, dads, and grandparents all waiting to welcome the New Year in. Both Enabler Gillian and I were leading the big countdown to 2011 and with the help of everyone who came along it went with a real bang! Hundreds of balloons fell from the balcony, children jumped on bubble wrap to imitate fireworks, and party poppers were fired. It was brilliant fun.

Enjoying a bubble wrap stomp!

But the fun didn’t stop there, oh no. Immediately following the celebrations in the Town Square, I was joined by Enabler Becky and we threw a disco in the theatre where all our visitors could make there very own funky New Years hats, let their hair down and have a good old boogie.




Now, you might not have been able to join us this year at Eureka!, but is there some special way that you celebrate the New Year?

If you did come down to join us, or if you had a party of your own, we hope that you had just as much fun as we did. So from all of us here at Eureka!: HAPPY NEW YEAR!
  
Ben Guilfoyle is an Outreach Enabler at Eureka! The National Children's Museum