School Activities

    Our school activities are suitable for all ages and levels including primary, secondary and A-Level. We offer workshops, hands-on activities and a teacher support service to help you get the most out of your visit. All school services are free, but must be booked in advance.

Darwin Centre

    Find out who you really are and where you come from in our interactive films about evolution, described by Sir David Attenborough.

Hands-on Activities

    Get up close and personal with Museum in these hands-on activities, where you can handle real specimens from our collections. Hundreds of real, natural history specimens for students to touch and explore are in our hands-on science centre.

Self-led Activities

    Pupils can engage with specimens through role-play in a self-guided explorer challenge through the Museum.

The Great Debate School Program

    Students are introduced to the history of the debate during a lively tour. They are then divided into groups and use exhibits to prepare presentations representing the views of the debated key characters.

Booking

    All school activities must be booked in advance by calling the schools booking line: 4420 7942 6666.

    When the evening is coming, my dear son and I are preparing for the tape time. “Shoes on,” I remind 9-year-old Sam. “Snakes are always waiting for the chance to kiss you. But with our feet stepped into my car, we are safe.” We take blankets and cups of milk and head out to the shelter that serves as our garage. This has become our bedtime habit.

    I press “play.” A motherly voice fills the car. My mother and my aunt send us books on tape obtained from secondhand shops or rescued from the back of drawer. Maybe no one in England lays cassettes anymore, but I still love them.

    Sam rests on his seat. He's sitting in the front seat. I am listening to the cassette. But I am also thinking. In a month's time, my boy will be 10. Next year, he will be 11. And so it will go on, until he leaves me and his father and his sister to live out his own stories— as it is only right and proper he should.

    Will he think back to the times when he sat in the dark in a car in Africa, listening to tales of Wales in World War Ⅱ, the finest lady detective of Botswana, or a country he has visited, and tells me he finds them “very interesting”? Will he think , when he is grown-up, the poor mum always makes the ancient tape player which is out of date work?

    I like to believe that he will recall those wonderful moments. By then, perhaps, my child will realize a deep love of sharing and understanding by listening to the old tape player. I hope Sam will think that these evenings we spend in the car are a story themselves. It is his own first chapter. In time my boy will ease off the hand brake and roll out into the world. Until then, I'll keep pressing “play”.

    The principles about applying for jobs have altered greatly lately. In the past, people preferred a hand­written application letter. However, nowadays it is becoming more and more common to apply for a job through the Internet. You can find information on the Internet about how to apply for jobs. Information can be found about how to fulfill your application letter, the clothes that you should wear and how to carry out the interview itself.

    The importance of body language is often mentioned, but doesn't always get the attention it deserves. After all, before a word has even been spoken, your body language will have already given people their first impression of you. Additionally, your body language will also give out a lot more information. Based on your body language it can be seen if you are self-confident. It can also show if you are a busy or a quiet type and it helps give an impression of whether you are speaking truthfully or not. Body language can show how enthusiastic you are and if you are a nice person, someone who will take his work seriously, but also someone who has a sense of humor and can enjoy a joke from time to time. The members of the application committee will ask you questions, but your answers won't only be oral. The committee will not only pay attention to what you say, but also to how you say it! Body language will determine first if it “clicks”， and sometimes all it takes is just a few seconds. Everybody uses body language, but it takes place mostly at a subconscious (下意识的) level. Using body language appropriately, you can definitely increase your chances of getting a job.

    Elizabeth Freeman was born about 1742 to African American parents who were slaves. At the age of six months she was acquired, along with her sister, by John Ashley, a wealthy Massachusetts slaveholders. She became known as “Mumbet” or “Mum Bett.”

    For nearly 30 years Mumbet served the Ashley family. One day, Ashley's wife tried to strike Mumbet's sister with a spade. Mumbet protected her sister and took the blow instead. Furious, she left the house and refused to come back. When the Ashleys tried to make her return, Mumbet consulted a lawyer, Theodore Sedgewick. With his help, Mumbet sued(起诉) for her freedom.

While serving the Ashleys, Mumbet had listened to many discussions of the new Massachusetts constitution. If the constitution said that all people were free and equal, then she thought it should apply to her. Eventually, Mumbet won her freedom—- the first slave in Massachusetts to do so under the new constitution.

    Strangely enough, after the trial, the Ashleys asked Mumbet to come back and work for them as a paid employee. She declined and instead went to work for Segdewick. Mumbet died in 1829, but her legacy lived on in her many descendants(后裔). One of her great-grandchildren was W.E.B. Du Bois, one of the founder of the NAACP, and an important writer and spokesperson for African American civil rights.

    Mumbet's tombstone still stands in the Massachusetts cemetery where she was buried. It reads, in part: “She was born a slave and remained a slave and remained a slave for nearly thirty years. She could neither read nor write, yet in her own sphere she had no superior or equal.”

    Your next Saturday night takeaway could be brought to you by a robot after a major food delivery company announced plans to use automated vehicles to transport meals. Europe's biggest online takeaway food company Just Eat has partnered with Starship Technologies to deliver food with robots on the streets of London later this month. “Nobody has ever done deliveries with land-based robots,” said Allan Martinson, the chief operating officer of Starship.

    The robot courier can travel up to 4 miles per hour for about 10 miles. It uses a GPS signal and nine cameras to navigate (确定方向). Instead of a person arriving at their door, customers could find themselves receiving a notification (通知) on their phone that says a robot is on its way and a code to unlock the automated courier. “Put the code in, the robot opens up, and there's your food,” said David Buttress, chief manager of Just Eat.

    The robot, which has so far been tested in Greenwich, Milton Keynes and Glastonbury, costs ￡1 to transport within 3 miles, compared with the ￡3 to ￡6 it costs for a human courier. To date 30 robots have driven nearly 5,000 miles without getting into an accident or finding themselves picked on by passers-by. They have driven in more than 40 cities around the world, including London and Tallinn, Estonia.

    An initial worry was how the public would react to robots. But Martinson said the public has been calm when passing the delivery machine on the streets. “The most surprising reaction has been the lack of reaction,” said Martinson.

    Another significant fear was that people would disrupt (扰乱) the robots, or try to steal them and their contents. To prevent this, the robot is fitted with nine cameras, two way audio, and movement sensors that send a warning if it is lifted off the ground. And it opens only with a pass code provided to the customer via a notification. “It's much easier to shoplift than it is to steal a robot,” said Martinson.

    Careers in zoology are extremely varied and unique, and can provide incredible learning and work opportunities for anyone devoted to animal studies and welfare. Zoology, or the study of animals, is a wide field with many specialties, including research, conservation, veterinary (兽医的) medicine, and the care of animals. For people with a love of animals and some training, dreams of careers in zoology may come true.

    Some careers in zoology focus on research and scientific studies. These careers may allow those with a good theoretical science background to develop and run studies that improve human understanding of the animal world. Research in zoology can help create safer and more effective products for animals or can teach humans more about animal behavior in order to aid in conservation, breeding programs, and habitat preservation.

    Careers in zoology that focus on conservation attach great importance to the continued survival and increased protection of animal species. Conservationists may work with political groups or governments to help make laws to protect and preserve animals, or may work in the field gathering information on potential threats to the health of global ecosystems. Some conservationists work in educational fields, trying to improve human efforts to save animals from extinction.

    Animals are subject to illness and injury, and some careers in zoology help to create a safe, stable animal population. Veterinary medicine is an important specialty field, and may take several years of intensive training to qualify as a certified veterinarian. While many veterinarians focus on the small-animal practice of domestic pets, vets in rural areas often work with large farm animals and more adventurous veterinarians may work with exotic species in zoos and wildlife preserves. .

    Humans love to observe animals, and modern-day zoos and wildlife preserves help meet that interest while providing facilities to assist with conservation programs. Zoology careers in zoos can range from overseeing breeding programs, to creating the proper diet for a deer, to cleaning the tiger's cage. Many volunteer and entry-level jobs are available for people that love animals.