Thinktank, Birmingham

Thinktank
Established	2001 (2001)
Location	Millennium Point, Birmingham, England
Type	Science
Website	www.thinktank.ac

Thinktank is a science museum in Birmingham, England. Opened in 2001, it succeeded and has several exhibits from the City's Museum of Science and Industry. It is part of the Millennium Point complex.

Building

Thinktank has four floors of over 200 hands-on exhibits and artefacts. Each floor has a theme, in general going from the past, in Thinkback (Level 0), through Thinkhere (Level 1) and Thinknow (Level 2), to the future, in the Thinkahead gallery (Level 3).

History

The decision to move the science museum was taken by Birmingham City Council in 1995, given the opportunity presented by the Millennium Commission to build a new museum. The old building was falling into a state of disrepair, and many of the artefacts were no longer in working order.

Thinkahead

This gallery contains the Futures exhibition, dealing with future technology, innovation and space travel. The majority of the displays are screens, with a trackball to choose to play a video on a certain topic.^{[citation needed]}

Topics include:

• Nanotechnology
• Emotive Robots
• Artificial Intelligence
• Growing organs
• Artificial heart - The Jarvik 2000
• Video Pills
• Silicon Gyroscope
• Micro air vehicles (MAV)

There is also a programmable drumming robot.^{[citation needed]}

The Future of Space section of the Futures gallery has various displays, including the International Space Station simulation, and the Mars Rover.^{[citation needed]}

Planetarium

The planetarium at Thinktank is the UK's first purpose-built digital planetarium.^{[citation needed]}

The image of the night sky is projected onto a domed screen above viewers heads using 6 multimedia projectors, each connected to a PC.

Thinknow

This gallery deals with current technology and scientific understanding, and how everyday life has been affected by scientific ideas and advances.

There are five galleries on this floor:

Things about me

This exhibition is aimed at younger children, helping them to understand how their own body works, and how to keep it working. It is a bright and noisy gallery. There are small characters called TAMs, who act as guides throughout the museum.

Wildlife

A Triceratops skull on display at the museum

This is a classic living history gallery, with stuffed and preserved animals. There is a collection of skeletons, skulls and fossils.

The Street

The Street is designed to show visitors how science affects their everyday life, and how objects they see around them work.

Kid's City

Kid's City is an exhibition that has been designed for small children, aged 7 and younger. It is more of a play area than a traditional exhibition, but also contains a garden with water feature, a health centre, cafe, and garage.

Medicine Matters

Medicine Matters is an exhibition that contains displays of current medical practices, and the moral dilemmas that occur, while other exhibits cover DNA, epilepsy, genetics, vaccination and personal health.

Thinkhere

City Stories

City Stories is a gallery looking at the development of Birmingham, from its medieval past, right up to present day. It looks at Birmingham in the Civil War, Industrial Revolution, World War II, and then a more recent history involving the Birmingham pub bombings.

LEGOlab

The LEGOlab is a one hour workshop run by Thinktank where customers can program Lego NXT robots to complete a variety of tasks. Aimed at older children, above 8, as even though the Lego NXT robots are easy to program it would be challenging for a younger child to grasp the challenges within one hour.

Thinkback

Move It

LMS Princess Coronation Class 46235 City of Birmingham as displayed at Thinktank

Concentrating on Birmingham's transport history, Move It contains all of the vehicles on display in Thinktank, including the LMS Princess Coronation Class steam locomotive, 46235 City of Birmingham, Railton Mobil Special, a Supermarine Spitfire and Hawker Hurricane hanging from the ceiling, and Birmingham Corporation Tramways tram 395.^{[citation needed]}

In the gallery are a pair of robots that display how a car is spot-welded during construction.^{[citation needed]}

Power Up

This exhibition displays steam engines, the main one being the Smethwick Engine, the oldest working steam engine in the world, built by Boulton and Watt. There is a display further on in the exhibition explaining the history of Boulton and Watt, and how they developed their engines. Other steam engines in this exhibition are those that have been used for pumping sewage, generating electricity, agricultural work and teaching.

There is also a display explaining how power is currently generated by a steam turbine.

Making Things

Making Things concentrates on the products that have been manufactured in Birmingham since the Middle Ages, until about 1950. There are various cabinets containing products that have been made in Birmingham.

Activities

Thinktank offers a range of activities during the school holidays and weekends. These range from free storytelling for under 7's, to whole family "shows" on a particular topic. Some of the daily activities are free to all paying visitors and others are optional extras.

References

"Thinktank - Explore". http://www.thinktank.ac/explore/default.htm. 

External links

• Official website
• Collections website, 'Birmingham Stories'
• Revolutionary Players website
• Your Icons Highlights from the Birmingham science museum collection