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By Laura Meade on

Prince’s Trust Students Take On The Launchbox Challenge

Laura Meade and Ronan Bullock, Outreach Officers in our Learning team, write about the Science Museum’s new partnership with the Prince’s Trust.

Earlier this year, we invited musician will.i.am and the Prince’s Trust to the Science Museum to announce a new partnership. Will.i.am recently gave a £500,000 donation to the Prince’s Trust, and we’re using some of this money to work with XL Clubs in schools across the country.

Will.i.am explores Google Web Lab at the Science Museum
Will.i.am explores Google Web Lab at the Science Museum

The Outreach team has been visiting schools across the country, ‘grossing out’ whole year groups with the It Takes Guts show and working with XL Clubs – aimed at 13-19 year olds at risk of underachievement or exclusion – for the Launchbox Challenge.

We’ve already been to schools in the East of England and taken a trip to Wales. Students are treated to a gruesome, in-depth look into the nether regions of the human digestive system with the chance to find the answers to all those digestion questions like where do burps come from?

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Investigating the small intestines in the It Takes Guts show

The Launchbox Challenge workshop set students the challenge of building their own chain reaction machines, giving them the chance to exercise their powers of invention. They must include as many ‘energy transfers’ as they can think of – maybe a chain of dominoes failing down, then knocking a ball down a tube and so on. The team work and creativity we have seen on all our visits so far has been brilliant. Here are a few of our favourite contraptions:

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Students in Wales and thier chain reaction machines

The Science Museum’s outreach team will be taking the Launchbox Challenge across the country and working with XL Clubs to engage young people with STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). We have thoroughly enjoyed our XL Clubs visits so far and the feedback has been great. Look out for our red van coming to a school near you soon!

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Stopping to admire the view in the Snowdonia National Park, Wales