Museum On The Move In Worcestershire

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A new travelling exhibition exploring the many ways number patterns and systems form an important part of our daily lives and the world around us.

Background

Warwickshire and Worcestershire Museum Services are in partnership to create a new exhibition for launch in March 2011 on their Museum on the Move vehicle. This project is funded through the West Midlands Hub under the ‘Renaissance in the Regions’ project and forms part of the wider Museums Keep Moving partnership. This partnership involves the shire counties of the Midlands (Worcestershire, Shropshire, Warwickshire, Herefordshire and Staffordshire) and the Black County conurbation (Walsall, Sandwell and Wolverhampton). Museum on the Move (MOM) exists to challenge rural isolation and social exclusion and to provide access to museum services for a variety of audiences.  These include visits to schools, sheltered accommodation, disability groups, care homes, hospitals, town centres, festivals and shows as well as a range of other venues.

We have recently been awarded Sandford Award for Heritage Education as a mark of our excellence in the field of heritage learning.

• Staff are specially trained to drive the vehicle and to interpret the exhibition on board.
• A set of handling boxes is available to use off the vehicle.
• The vehicle needs a safe place to park and sufficient access and turning space.
• We recommend a maximum of 10 to 12 children or adults on board at any one time. There is room for 2 wheelchairs to manoeuvre inside the vehicle.
• A visit on board takes approximately 40 minutes
• Every year each of the partner counties is allocated 'blocks' of six weeks throughout the Mobile Museum's touring season.

Exhibition Vision

The theme we have chosen this year is Numbers. This is a very broad subject, but five sub-topics have been identified to enable us to explore key aspects within the space of the MoM vehicle. The sub-topics include:

1.     Introduction – how numbers play a big part in almost everything we do, a brief history of numbers – Roman and Arabic numerals.

2.     Numbers in daily life – how we use numbers in shopping, as identity, in games, lucky numbers etc.

3.     Numbers in nature – how number patterns are present in nature – from crystal formation in rocks to names of insects e.g. 2 and 7 spot ladybirds.

4.     Numbers in history – timelines – historical and geological, dating techniques such as Radio Carbon dating, number as control e.g. tattoos in concentration camps.

5.     Numbers in order – numbers in music, number languages such as binary, number codes and code cracking.

The exhibition is object rich, engaging and interactive using innovative approaches to interpretation.

This cross-curricular exhibition is suitable across the Key Stages and covers elements of Maths, History, Geography and Science!

The exhibition is supported by outreach materials including an education pack and two handling boxes of objects based around themes relating to the use of numbers in daily life now and in the past.  Two facilitators accompany the bus on any journey and are there is help people make sense of and enjoy the exhibition.

The whole exhibition is fun, enjoyable, colourful and memorable - we want visitors to come away from MOM with a greater appreciation and understanding of the major role numbers play in the world around us and in their own lives. We also hope that the exhibition will enhance the teaching and appreciation of numeracy at all levels and build knowledge and confidence in people of all ages and abilities.

The exhibition launches on 15^th March 2011 (11-4.00pm) at County Hall, Worcester.

How to Find Out More

Download our teachers pack to find out more about how to make the most of your Mobile Museum visit.

For further details about this exhibition and to book please contact:

Sue Pope (Learning & Outreach Manager, Museums Worcestershire) on either:

Telephone: 01299 250416

Email: spope@worcestershire.gov.uk