Discovery Museum has been awarded £80,000 from the Reece Foundation

Newcastle’s Discovery Museum has been awarded £80,000 from the Reece Foundation to support learning and engagement with children and young people in Tyneside.  

Focussing on STEM subjects – science, technology, engineering, and maths – and using the museum’s world class science and engineering collections as inspiration, the funding will support this work over the next three years.  

Thomas Elwick, Learning Officer at Discovery Museum said:  

 “These funds will allow us to enhance and expand the museum’s learning and engagement programme, with the aim of instilling a lifelong enthusiasm in these subjects, arming young people with the confidence to pursue careers in these fields.  

 “We are very grateful to the Reece Foundation for supporting Discovery Museum, and the development of our STEM learning offer, including formal activity such as school workshops and informal activity with families and young people. 

 “Many  current and future careers feature STEM subjects, and the activities that we can provide will equip children and young people with transferable life skills too.”  

Anne Reece said:  

 “The Discovery Museum has a most exciting collection of scientific and engineering inventions from the North East. Our area has been a hot bed of innovation and scientific discovery throughout history.  

 “We need to make sure this continues into the future and we at the Reece Foundation are delighted to support the museum in showing these fantastic inventions to a new audience of young people and inspiring them to think up the great ideas which will transform the future world.” 

The learning team at Discovery Museum usually welcomes about 13,000 schoolchildren to the museum every year.  This year’s pandemic has made visits impossible, but the team has responded to the challenge and devised a new blended offer:  they now virtually visit schools and are continually exploring new ways to engage with schools and develop new audiences.  

The Reece Foundation aims to increase the long term and sustainable prosperity of the North East of England, focussing on the improvement of education in engineering and related scientific and mathematical subjects, training in engineering skills, and the development of employment opportunities.  

Discovery Museum is Newcastle’s major science, technology, military and social history museum with collections of international significance. Spread over three floors and nine galleries, the museum’s displays highlight the resilience and innovation of North East people.  

The museum is home to world firsts including the first steam turbine powered ship, Turbinia, and the world’s first commercial lightbulb.  

Currently closed to the public due to the North East’s Tier 3 Covid government guidelines, museum staff continue to provide services to schools and communities and have adapted to  the ever- changing landscape of contemporary life.