Resources

In the Museum

Part of our recent major gallery redevelopment has included the provision of a new Resources Area in the Museum gallery. Here you'll find sets of rocks and fossils to touch and explore and a variety of activities based around our collections.

There are a selection of books to choose from about themes explored in the Museum, and a temporary display area for work produced by visiting groups.

In the Classroom

To help your class prepare for or follow up a visit to the Museum, we have a selection of material available for you to use in the classroom. Our loans boxes comprise a set of rocks, fossils and minerals - real specimens from the Museum's collections - with accompanying notes.

Loans boxes must be booked by telephone, (01223) 333456. Please email the Education Officer if you would like more information.

Ideas and Evidence at the Sedgwick Museum is a pack of resources including teachers notes, high quality images, activity templates andworksheets which deal explicitly with the ideas and evidence content in the KS3 curriculum in the context of rocks and fossils.

The contents cover and guide teachers through two pre-visit lessons, a visit to the Sedgwick Museum, and a post-visit lesson to consolidate the visit. The classroom-based activities can also all be used individually and slotted into existing lesson plans, and most of the Museum-based activities can be easily adapted for use in the classroom.

>> Go to the Ideas and Evidence page

Being Darwin the Geologist is a comprehensive, flexible set of lesson plans for using in both the classroom and during a visit to the Sedgwick Museum. Devised by teachers working with the Museum Education Officer and the Darwin the Geologist project team, this pack includes novel ideas for combining scientific thinking with history, maths, literacy and PSHE. These exploring and investigating activities are aimed at Year 5 and Year 6 pupils, but their adaptable content makes them suitable for wider KS2 and also KS3.

Click the following links to download your preferred version of the pack: Being Darwin the Geologist full colour; Being Darwin the Geologist black and white

Download Being Darwin the Geologist full colour

Download Being Darwin the Geologist black and white

Online

These resources are available for you to use free of charge. Please contact us with any questions or queries regarding content.

Tools of the Trade

Want to try your hand as a geologist aboard HMS Beagle? Our new Tools of the Trade Flash interactive will help you to find out more about the tools that Darwin used to map the locations he visited and to analyse and identify the geological specimens he collected.

>>Start learning about the Tools of the Trade

Exploring the Wenlock Reef

Exploring the Wenlock Reef includes lots of information about one of the famous fossil collections in the Museum including a searchable museum catalogue and high quality pictures of many of the fossils. There is also a wealth of information about the creatures and the time and place in which they lived, with a focus on how earth scientists use detective work to collect and interpret evidence to piece these stories together.

>> Start exploring the Wenlock Reef

>> Glossary of geological terminology and phrases. Also available as a PDF (0.1 MB).

>> Image Gallery. Large images for use in your classroom activities, handouts and slideshows.

Teachers Pack 2013: Everything you need to plan a group visit to the Museum (1 MB).

Lots more things to do: Ideas for cross-curricular games and activities to try during your visit.

Darwin Detectives gallery trail: A simple fact-filled worksheet for young explorers (1.1 MB).

Gallery Risk Assessment.

Handling set guide (6.16 MB) Use at the Museum with the Land and Sea handling set, or use as a standalone reference.

Please note you'll need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view and print PDF files.