Eureka! inspires 'Creativity in the Classroom'

At Eureka! we are known for our commitment to making learning the fun, exciting activity that we believe it should be; whether it’s here in the museum or out in the community with one of our outreach activities/shows. Manchester Metropolitan University decided that it would be great if we could pass on some of our ideas and enthusiasm to some of their student teachers at their conference about creativity in the classroom. We agreed, and enlisted the help of Captain Sam (the Scurvy suffering pirate) and me (otherwise known as Flora Explorer) and we headed west.

Captain Sam, aka. Darren

After a brief introduction to Eureka! (Who we are and what we do) from Jenny Goodall, our Play & Learning Assistant, it was over to us. Our first section highlighted the fun that a bit of drama, song, and dance can bring to learning. Captain Sam (that was Darren Fearnley - pictured, by the way) set the scene and then it was all hands to the deck (pardon the pun) as we got the students on their feet joining in with the ‘Scurvy Song’; a swashbuckling sea shanty with a riotous dance that tells the true story of Dr Lind’s clinical trial; which succeeded in discovering the cure for scurvy. (Not gargling with sulphuric acid, as it turns out!).


Next Flora (that’s me, remember) demonstrated the effective use of multi-sensory learning as she dived into her explorer’s bag and pulled out an assortment of spices – not just the boring powdered stuff but the actual parts of the plant; Vanilla seed pods, nutmeg nuts, cinnamon bark, cloves (dried flower buds) and a whopping great piece of ginger (which is a rhizome, or underground stem, if you’re interested). The students listened to me talking about the spices and read about where they came from on little cards, but the best bit was actually touching and smelling – or maybe it was the bit where I produced a packet of ginger biscuits so they could involve their sense of taste as well!


We produced some giant laminated coins to demonstrate that even ‘sums’ can be fun if you are playing a game and then went on to play with science – with some colourful, explosive, messy and amazing demonstrations.
The students were really receptive and asked lots of questions so I am sure that at least some of the things they saw will be finding their way into classrooms in the future. I felt it was a very worthwhile trip and the university agreed, giving us the following feedback:

"I just want to thank you for your excellent workshop. The evaluations were very positive and in the final session when the students were sharing their experiences, they discussed the workshop with enthusiasm."

I love the thought of enthusiastic teachers because if teachers are having fun teaching then children will be having fun learning – and that’s the ideal.


Jill Ward, Eureka! Enabler

Joining the Play Revolution

A common misconception about Eureka! is that we are a commercial visitor attraction …many people simply don’t know we are a non-profit charity.  This is something we hope to tackle in the coming months, as we give you, our visitors, a lot more information about the work we do in the museum and beyond in our outreach programmes.

As an educational charity we receive no government funding. Our museum and activities are funded by our admission fees, fundraising and commercial activities like our shop and cafe. Therefore, every single voluntary donation makes an incredible difference.

Our next major project is the development of our new flagship exhibition Me and My World.  This will replace the much loved Me and My Body gallery, but don’t worry – we will make sure we retain and update some of your favourite exhibits!  The new exhibition will cost a grand total of £2.9m of which we have already raised £2.1m, so we are well on our way to reaching this total but there is still a lot of work to do.

As one of the thousands of people that read our blog every year, we hope you can do one simple thing to help out.  Quite simply, we need 5 minutes of your time.  Eureka! has registered on the Co-operative Revolution campaign where you can vote for your favourite revolution.  Eureka! of course is leading the play revolution so simply follow the link provided and register your vote.  The most popular revolution in each region will be awarded £5,000 and if all our readers take a few minutes to do this, we’re in with a good chance! 

It won’t cost you a penny, and will help us achieve our vision of an exhibition which will inspire a whole new group of children who, like their parents before them, will look back on days spent at Eureka! as some of the most magical learning moments of their childhood.

You can register and vote online on the Co-operative Revolution website.

Kate Goldring is the Fundraising Manager at Eureka! The National Children's Museum.