Foxton Locks offers an excellent learning environment that extends beyond the classroom and helps schools deliver learning opportunities to inspire in a creative and authentic way.
Learning
The Science Curriculum.
The delivery of the National Curriculum Science provision requires pupils to understand and access a range of new terms and concepts to become familiar with technical vocabulary and describe how things work. The Museum has the facility to demonstrate how simple mechanisms work in a way that is easy accessed by students of all ages.
The boat lift that operated at Foxton from 1900 to 1911 worked on the counter balancing principle familiar in today's funicular railways. The caissons filled with water, were able to carry two boats each and were operated by a steam boiler in the engine house. The guillotine gates were secured by an hydraulic press that ensured that little water escaped during each transportation. The whole system was operated using cable that allowed the caissons to ascend and descend the incline plane on rails.
The museum has loan boxes that contain class packs of activities to explain these processes.
We can deliver this content or help you explore these topics in more depth.
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The Science specification for schools also includes a global content such as Clean Energy, Water Use and Human Effects on our Environment and Pollution. The history of the canals and their part in the industrialisation of Britain is embedded with these topics. The building of Britain's waterways were imperative in developing our manufacturing industries and changed the way of life for many people involved in and near those industries.
The Canal and River Trust in conjunction with Rolls Royce developed a series of STEM projects to explore the Science curriculum using our waterways and the water cycle.
These projects can be explored in a classroom environment or delivered by the museum.
Topics that can be explored are:
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Water pressure / lock gates
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Hydraulics / Pascal's Principal
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Measuring mass / Upthrust / Archimedes
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Mechanisms / Levers / Gears
To find out more, please contact the museum.
Foxton Canal Museum is also involved in the National British Science week. We will be delivering content and activities in conjunction with schools and visitors.
This year's theme is 'Change and Adapt.'
To find out more about Science on the waterways and explore what workshops we can provide please contact Foxton Canal Museum: learning@foxtoncanalmuseum.org
