Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences, Cambridge
We, my 4 year old daughter and I, visited in Half Term, so while the museum was busier than normal it was still worth going.
Located on Downing Street its just a short walk from the Trumpington Park and Ride bus stop at John Lewis, its free to enter and there are lots of activity sheets to collect at the entrance suitable for 3 – 12 year olds. As it was half term there were also a lot of activities to take part in, with University experts.
We started looking at the Darwin Collection which included an interactive model of the Beagle and a mock up of Darwin’s Cabin and then stumbled upon a Hippo that was found in Barrington. It died in the Ice Age along with Rhinos, Lions and Hyenas and was found by coprolite miners around 100 years ago, always good to find something that links to ancient poo!
We moved onto looking at Iggy the Iguanodon and other fossils of animals and fish found in Cambridgeshire as part of the Palaeontology Collection, these were interesting to adults but my daughter struggled to see all the displays as they were in quite high up, I discovered about half way round a load of plastic steps that would have helped her see!
There is an interactive section of the museum where there are fossils we could touch and half term activities discovering plate techtonics such as building our own mountains, making an earthquake (a favourite of most children) and learning how to listen to the sounds of the earth during an earthquake.
My 4 year old by this point was needing a rest and the Museum happily provide a trolley of books so after reading 4 books about dinosaurs we were able to continue looking around the rest of the collection.
We spent almost 2 hours at the museum, my daughter “loved it” and we look forward to visiting again especially when there are special events on.
Top tip… the Museum only has one toilet, so take a trip to John Lewis before you go in!
Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences
University of Cambridge
Downing Street
Cambridge
CB2 3EQ
UK
sedgwickmuseum.cam.ac.uk
Monday – Friday 10am – 5pm
Saturday 10am – 4pm
Sunday Closed
Admission Free – No Booking Required
