15.12.11 Science Museum's Secret Formula for
Festive Fun
Christmas comes early this year as the
Science Museum and leading toy brand
Meccano team up to give festive visitors an extra treat with a
series of interactive, hands-on family workshops running from 19th to
21st December.
The “Make it with Meccano” workshops in the Flight Gallery are the
brainchild of the
Science Museum’s Family Programmes team. Visitors will have the
opportunity to craft their own Christmas creations using an abundance of
Meccano parts. A competition for the best model will run each day
and there will be a prize draw after the workshops finish to win a
Meccano star prize.
Sue Barratt, Country Manager,
Meccano Toys (UK) Ltd, says: “
Meccano
is a wonderful fusion of creativity and construction, with science at
its very heart. The workshops are a brilliant opportunity for families
to escape from the chaos of Christmas and spend some quality time
playing together to create models from a variety of Meccano components.
“The beauty of
Meccano is that you’re only limited by your imagination. You can
build a model, take it apart and start again and create something
completely different, using the very same parts. It has been used by
prominent architects, designers and scientists – including Sir Norman
Foster and computer pioneer Alan Turing. So it has quite a pedigree and
who knows, it could be the inspiration for the world’s next Sir Tim
Berners-Lee!”
Anthony Richards, Gallery Programmes Manager,
Science Museum, says: “The
Science Museum has a long tradition of providing hands-on learning
for children and adults going back to the 1930s. There are so many
strong associations for us with
Meccano, like them, many scientists and engineers have long admitted
hours of their lost youth amongst our working models, demonstrations and
exhibits.
“Despite the immediacy of modern toys and interfaces our hands on
exhibitions like Launchpad are more popular than ever, giving children
direct first hand experience with real phenomena and stretching their
imagination and creativity. This Christmas, there is now even more to do
at the Science Museum!”
Meccano workshops present the opportunity for visitors to take
inspiration from iconic objects and transform
Meccano into anything from robots to spacecraft, displaying finished
creations alongside world famous engineering.
Meccano workshops run from 11.00-13.00 and in the afternoon from
14.30-16.30. The
Science Museum is also celebrating the wonder of robots throughout
December, comprising robot workshops, demonstrations, installations and
object handling sessions. For more details visit
www.sciencemuseum.org.uk
