Supporting ‘Diversity in Science’ at the London Science Museum

This summer we supported the ‘Diversity in Science’ exhibition at the London Science Museum with the Environment Agency to raise awareness of the diversity of science and scientists in the environment sector.

The museum welcomed over  a total of 227,354 visitors over the four weeks of the exhibition, and our augmented reality sandbox was a big hit in the ‘Live Science Space’.  It enabled people to learn about how water moves through a catchment, how we can manage flood risk and climate change adaptation.  Visitors could also explore the ‘Eco-activity Zone’ to play the How Bad are Bananas? game which started many conversations about carbon and helped people understand their carbon footprint.

Over 90 staff from the Environment Agency and JBA Trust volunteered their time to support the event and had over 6,400 conversations with visitors about the climate emergency, flood risk and diversity in the environment sector.  Feedback collected during the event showed that 78% of visitors will now take action on flood risk or climate change based on what they saw and heard at the Science Museum.

Craig Lucas, a JBA Trust volunteer who led the sandbox activities, said:

“Working at the London Science Museum was such a great experience to interact with a wide range of people. It was also an excellent opportunity to plant the seed of flood risk management and sustainability in the minds of children that visited the sandbox. Hearing their ideas on how to protect homes from flooding was inspiring and the sandbox was a very popular attraction. Hopefully, I can go back next year!”

Sue Jones, another JBA Trust volunteer who led the sandbox activities, said:

“It was a pleasure to represent JBA Trust to demonstrate the augmented reality sandbox at the ‘Diversity in Science’ exhibition at the London Science Museum. It was such a privilege to be involved in such an interesting and worthwhile event with such enthusiasm and engagement from all those that attended.”