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History of Science HotSpots Competition

To celebrate the launch of our new website, the BSHS Travel Guide, we are inviting pupils from across the UK to tell us about a local place that they think is important to the history of science.

Perhaps a famous scientist lived or worked in your local area, or an important discovery was made just around the corner. Is there a site of industrial importance or a famous institution right on your doorstep? If so, tell us all about it! You can even send us up to 3 photographs you have taken or pictures that you have drawn to bring your travel guide to life.

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History of Science Songs

A recent Outreach and Education Committee project has been the collection of songs from the history of science. This resulted in a lyric-writing competition in 2009, in a blog containing historic examples, and in a session at ‘Outreach Day’ at the 2010 BSHS Aberdeen conference. Continue reading →

Astronomical Amusements

Astronomical Amusements is an activity developed by the Outreach and Education Committee introducing Georgian recreational astronomy. It ran at Scientriffic in Wrexham in 2008, and at an activity day at the Museum of the History of Science, Oxford, in 2009.

The Tables Turned

In Victorian Britain, thousands of people were turning tables. Participants at séances across the country heard long-departed voices, levitated musical instruments, and channelled strange languages, breaching supposed barriers between the natural and the supernatural, soul and matter, the known and … Continue reading →

The Business of Bodies

‘The Business of Bodies’ takes its audience to a grave-robbing trial of the late 1820s. ‘Spanish Frank’ has been apprehended after a moonlit chase through a churchyard, and is accused of body-snatching. The audience must act as his jury, as they hear expert witness from legal, medical, and scientific figures, and uncover the historical and social contexts of this grave anatomical trade. Continue reading →

Natural Mimics

‘Natural Mimics’ is an Outreach and Education Committee project based around the life, travels, and scientific works of Henry Walter Bates. Continue reading →

The Bone Trail

The Bone Trail is an exciting schools project funded jointly by the British Society for the History of Science, Bolton Local Authority Secondary Strategy and the Manchester Museum. A team of three educators — one academic historian of science (Emm … Continue reading →

Death and the City

Students uncover seventeenth-century attitudes to disease, medical practice and social standing and religion through role-play. Continue reading →

Participants contemplate ventriloquising an artificial leg at the 2007 Annual Conference

Object Stories

What would Faraday’s magnets say if asked to tell you their life story? This pilot project is investigating the creative writing of ‘object autobiographies’ as an educational resource in history of science. Narratives in the voice of non-humans were used … Continue reading →

2010 Perspectives on Science Competition Winners

The Outreach and Education Committee is pleased to announce the winners of its 2010 schools’ competition. The Prize was awarded for the best history of science essay written by an entrant into the Extended Project Qualification on ‘Perspectives on Science’, … Continue reading →

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