Our school and youth group activities have been designed by our education team, that have between them 35 years experience in teaching.
Most of our workshops are based around the National Curriculum and can be tailored to suit the visiting school’s requirements.
If we don’t have a session that meets your needs, we are happy to discuss how we can help you.
- There are no photos of our sessions to protect pupil privacy.
- We charge £2 per pupil, accompanying adults up to 6 per 30 children are free.
- Our sessions are usually run when the museum is closed to the public.
- The charge goes towards our opening costs and any materials used.
The following sessions are available:
History/Maths, Local study: The Chronology of Aviation including key moments on the Isle of Wight (KS1, KS2)
History, Local study: Rocket Island (KS1, KS2)
WW 2 Local History (KS2, KS3)
Science, Forces: Hovercraft (KS2, KS3)
English, Communication: Message sending and receiving (KS2, KS3)
Science, Materials and Rockets (KS1, KS2)
Geography, Compass points and Mary Ellis (KS1, Rainbows/Brownies, Beavers/Cubs)
Scouts and Girl-guiding. We offer sessions based around badge work. Please contact us for further information.
Some of our sessions can be offered for delivery in school or meeting place, but they are more conducive to learning if done at the museum.
History/Maths, Local study: The Chronology of aviation including key moments on the Isle of Wight (KS1, KS2)
Working chronologically, the session will include a tour of the museum – which will highlight the historical beginnings of aviation on the island by looking at artefacts and documents, and major island companies on the Island and their contribution to aviation. An introduction into the materials used to make planes and why they use those materials will lead to a practical investigation using paper planes, working scientifically in pairs or small groups, learning about various forces involved in flying. Pupils will also be able to interact with a banner showing the chronology of manned flight from Chinese kites, to jet planes and rockets.
History, Local study: Rocket Island (KS1, KS2)
Come and see a full-size replica of the famous Black Arrow rocket and have hands on experience of smaller models. Discuss what you NEED to take/have in a rocket to survive and why, covering life processes from the science NC, then discuss what one thing they would like to take and why. A tour of the museum will enable pupils to identify the various rockets made and tested on the island, and the satellite carried up into space by a rocket from the Isle of Wight. Stomp rockets will introduce pupils to working scientifically, looking at the forces affecting a rocket during lift off, and collecting various data from the flights of the rockets.
WW 2 Local History (KS2. KS3)
This unit includes looking at local history by studying the crash sites on the Island and finding out about Sgt. John Haire, who saved the village of Arreton, and Mary Ellis who was in the Air Transport Auxiliary and flew over 1,000 planes of 76 different types. Pupils will look at the plotting table and find out how it worked without mobile phones! How good is your pupils shape recognition? Pupils will look at 2D shapes of planes and then be given a recognition sheet for ‘Friend or Foe” and shown a basic film of silhouettes of both friendly and enemy planes. They have to use the sheet to decide what they are and if they are friend they stand up and wave, if they are foe they run to the Observer Corps bunker and tell them what they saw. Finally Pupils will be given a tour of the museum, paying special attention to the Spitfire display, which has a model of each type of Spitfire made.
Science, Forces: Hovercraft (KS2, KS3)
This unit is split into 4 sessions. Each session can be presented on its own or as part of the unit.
Session 1. How did Sir Christopher Cockerell come up with the idea of one of the most innovative forms of transport of all time, one that can travel on land and water! Pupils will look at forces in general, how to show the direction and strength of a force on a diagram. Then, focussing on friction as a force, pupils will build a CD and balloon hovercraft looking at how different surfaces affect the travel of the hovercraft. They will record their results in a table and give a conclusion for them.
Session 2: The class will be split into 2 groups. Group 1 pupils will be introduced to a range of different surfaces and model hovercraft. In small groups they will fill in a table to record their results and make a prediction, based on the previous session if they had it, about which surfaces the model hovercraft will drive over and which will slow it down or stop it. While this is going on group 2 will make paper hovercraft looking at how size affects their performance and why that is, decorate them and have races with them around various obstacles. The groups will then swop over. At the end of the session we will compare results and discuss why the different surfaces affected the hovercraft speed in different ways.
Session 3: A trip to Hovertravel. (Depending on availability.)
Session 4: A visit to the museum where pupils will be split into 3 groups. Group 1 will explore the static CC7 hovercraft at the museum and find out how it works, and be part of a demonstration of an SR N4 model, looking at the vehicles on board to give an idea of scale. Group 2 pupils will Tour the museum and pay particular attention to the hovercraft display, which shows how a hovercraft skirt inflates. Group 3 will be in the Opps room looking at hovercraft around the world, and why they are the best form of transport to use at that place in the world. They will place discs on a world map in the correct country. At the end of this session all pupils will meet in hangar 2 and discuss what they have learned from the unit. They will be given a short evaluation sheet to fill in which will also act as an assessment for their learning.
English/Maths, Communication: Message sending and receiving (KS2, KS3)
Pupils will be split into 3 groups. Group 1 will tour of the museum, which will enable pupils to see various instances of codes being used, e.g. on the plotting table, silhouettes of enemy and friendly planes in WW2, morse code, live flight tracker codes. Group 2 will either go out onto our large field or be in Hanger 2 where pupils will learn semaphore, and how to send and receive messages. Group 3 will be in the Ops room where they will look at examples of code, looking for patterns and clues to help them break the code. An important skill they will take away with them is how to signal ‘Help” in morse code using a light, and something to make a sound. All of the above will involve pupils in scientific investigation, problem solving, reasoning, making connections, and reporting.
Science, Materials and Rockets (KS1, KS2)
Once in the museum the class is split into 3 groups. Pupils in group 1 are introduced to a range of different materials, some of which are very high tech. In pairs or small groups they examine the materials through various tests and decide if they would be suitable for the construction of the skin of a rocket. They have to feed back to the rest of the group the reasons why they would or why they would not be suitable. Group 2 make a paper and straw rocket, discuss why paper is the best material for this, then look at trajectory and have a competition to see who can get their rocket to fly the furthest. Group 3 will have a tour of the museum, paying particular attention to our rocket display area.
Geography: Compass points and Mary Ellis (KS1, Rainbows/Brownies, Beavers/Cubs)
On arrival at the museum pupils will be split into 3 groups. Group 1 will have a tour of the museum, group 2 will be introduced to Mary Ellis and the number of planes she flew. They will pay particular attention to how she found her way, whilst flying, to the various airfields she had to go to to deliver the new aeroplanes. Pupils will use various instruments, which will introduce compass points, and a map. The group will help direct Mary in the direction she needs to go to get to the required airfield. Group 3 will make paper planes looking at how difficult it is to get then to go in the direction required and how they can make them turn slightly