For teachers

It's a challenging and engaging interactive online activity in which students create their own museum gallery.
It's supported by worksheets and lesson notes, and by follow-up information about museums and higher education.
The full text used by students to research objects within the activity is also available. This could be exploited for an off-line version of the activity if you do not have access to an ICT suite.

The interactive task is flexible, and introduces a range of ideas in both History and Science. It may therefore suit students in either subject from around Year 7 upwards.
The lesson notes and support materials are specifically designed for use with History students in Year 9, but may be useful more widely.

The main skills focus is on historical significance (as per section 2e of the KS3 History Programme of Study). Students are asked to assess and explain the significance of the objects they find according to five criteria.
The main topic focus is on the history of science and the ways in which our society sees and understands the world. This links closely with Unit 21 of the QCA KS3 History Schemes of Work, From Aristotle to the atom: scientific discoveries that changed the world?, which itself draws on material from throughout KS3.

Students create their gallery by finding and reading about real objects from the Whipple's collection within an animated interactive environment. They then select which objects to use, write labels for them, and position them in the gallery. Galleries can be printed, and saved to be returned to later.
The activity is accessed through our website. It can also be downloaded to your computers, though access to our website is required in order to save and print galleries.

Yes! The worksheets are provided as web pages, PDF files and Word documents, so they are simple to edit to suit the specific needs of your class. If you do adapt this activity, please email us a copy [mailto:hello@gallerychallenge.org] so we can share it with our other visitors.

This site is the outcome of a HEFCE-funded project to raise young people's aspirations towards higher education and careers in the museum sector.
The activity is tailored for use in schools because we believe it has strong educational value, and because we think this is a good way to reach our target audience.

What now?

To find out more about this resource -

Explore the interactive activity, if you haven't already (once you've got the feel of this, you can also check all the text within it on one page).
Read the long worksheet for students.
Have a look at the lesson notes.