This November, the Science Museum in London is opening a brand new, interactive gallery in collaboration with Marvel Studios and the NHS, as well as other leading organisations, that aims to inspire secondary school students to think about their skills and interests to help inform their career and education choices.
Young people will get hands on with job-related tasks, all simulated through interactive exhibits throughout the gallery.
A visit to Technicians: The David Sainsbury Gallery will support teachers in having productive careers conversations with their class as well as meeting two of the eight Gatsby Good Career Guidance Benchmarks.
School groups can now book a visit online for next academic year and add a visit to the gallery using the museum’s new itinerary builder and online booking system.
About the gallery
The gallery spans multiple sectors – health science, creative arts, manufacturing and renewable energy.
Students will get to experience what it’s like to create visual effects on a blockbuster film set, analyse blood samples in a medical laboratory, operate a robot in a manufacturer’s workshop, fix a fault atop a wind turbine and much more.
Creative sector
The centrepiece of the experience will be a reconstructed film set for Shuri’s Lab from the hugely successful film, Marvel Studios’ Black Panther.
Visitors can re-enact the role of a film-set lighting technician, tasked with adjusting the lighting brightness, colour and intensity to correctly light the set, work as a post-production sound technician to seamlessly match sound and dialogue to a real scene and use the precision of a visual effects technician to skillfully integrate virtual objects into footage from the film.
Health sciences sector
The health sciences section will focus on the role of pharmacy technicians who create bespoke drugs for patients in NHS hospitals.
Visitors will be able to try out their analysis and measurement skills through interactive exhibits which mimic the life-saving tasks – such as preparing an IV bag, checking medicines for contaminants and pipetting – something NHS technicians must perform daily with exceptional accuracy.
Renewable energy sector
A huge wind turbine model will greet visitors to the energy networks section of the gallery, which reveals the technicians, often working outdoors or in extreme environments, who build, maintain and repair the energy networks which power our world.
Visitors can take on the role of a wind turbine maintenance technician, diagnosing and solving problems then checking their fix has succeeded with a virtual wind turbine model, or pilot a remotely operated vehicle on the ocean floor, studying multiple camera feeds and weather charts while operating a range of piloting controls to successfully clear obstructions from an underwater trench.
Advanced manufacturing sector
Visitors can experience the work of technicians at the University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre by testing innovative designs using computer aided design and experimenting with simple coding to optimise the movement of a robotic arm, watching it in action in a task inspired by the use of robotics in recycling facilities.
The enjoyment of taking apart an old games console to see how it worked inspired one individual to begin a technical career and that deconstructed games console can be seen on display alongside another inspiring object, a bespoke prosthetic leg made for a ballet dancer by advanced manufacturing technicians at Imperial College London.
Visit sciencemuseum.ac.uk/learning to book a school trip to the Science Museum.
