Reaching out while closed

While the museum was closed at Arborfield and not yet open in Lyneham, the challenge for our Education Officer was to begin developing a new education programme. The main focus was talking to schools near our new site in Lyneham. Assemblies are a great first step into schools and we timed some near Armed Forces Day as a talking point.

During these assemblies, we could talk to both children and teachers about who REME are and what sort of thing they should be expecting in the museum when it eventually opened. We talked about what the Armed Forces do for us and who they are, protection, peace, aid and innovation. We also discussed the role of veterans, men, women and members of the Commonwealth who make up our fighting forces. With the help of a few young volunteers from the audience, schools had a chance to explore some uniform and kit from both World War Two and the present day.

Education Officer, Oliver Parr, ready to present an Armed Forces Day assembly.

Developing workshops

Once the REME Museum moved to Lyneham, we got busy working with schools to develop new, exciting workshops. Being new to north Wiltshire, our Education Officer ran focus groups with local primary school teachers to see what we could offer our new audience. Teachers asked for fun, exciting workshops befitting of REME’s heritage and engineering role in the Army.

From these discussions, five workshops were created, developed and tested in the playgrounds and classrooms of local schools. Between them, they covered the subjects of Design and Technology, Science, Maths, English and History for classes at Key Stages 1 and 2.

Once the museum was open, school children would have an opportunity to build recovery vehicles from LEGO®, discover the story of REME medal winners, test their maths skills in our Army-style command tasks or even bivouac in the museum grounds.

Funding LEGO® Engineering

One of the key outcomes of discussions with teachers was the interest in a Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) workshop based on the unique vehicles in the museum. LEGO® Education was seen to be a wonderful material to work with and one which could help us to meet the need of local schools. The pupils could engage with it whilst making it easier to build complex machines in the short timeframe schools have during a museum visit. The only issue with using LEGO® was expense – particularly when buying for a class of over 30 pupils. So, financial support would have to be obtained to make this project a reality.

Funding was sought from the Institute of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) and the Institute of Engineering and Technology’s (IET) Engineering Education Grant Scheme. With their assistance, and guidance from Lieutenant Colonel Ian Parsons (Chair of Western Region IMechE), the Museum was able to purchase multiple LEGO® sets.

Each set provides a battery pack, motor, axles, pulleys, gears and much more.

The Museum also teamed up with Lyneham Primary School, who supplied class space and pupils to run 6 trial workshops. Pupils were paired up and tasked to design and build a powered recovery vehicle in an hour, which could then tow a toy truck. The children loved getting stuck into the LEGO® sets and many fantastic designs were produced. “The best part of the workshop is that you can do your own design” commented a pupil from Year 4.

The most challenging part for the children was converting the power of the motor to the wheels via some form of transmission. Thankfully, they had the support of three Artificer Sergeant Majors (ASMs) Warrant Officers 1st Class (WO1) Flynn, Hart and Watson, from 8 Training Battalion REME. With their help the pupils were able to use a combination of cogs, axles and pulleys to power their recovery vehicles.

The workshops were a great success and the Museum received excellent feedback from all involved.

The Museum would like to thank the IMechE and IET for their support in this project. The project’s success was also down to the staff and pupils of Lyneham Primary School, who were willing subjects for this trial. The support of the institute members for these early trials was crucial in helping the Museum get the learning level right for these initial trial workshops.

As a result of this project, the REME Museum has the resources and experience to run LEGO® Engineering workshops with visiting schools. By using the exciting collection in the museum, we can engage with even more young people and help inspire a new generation of engineers.

“Everything is awesome… I learnt a lot of new things about REME engineering.”

– Response from a 10-year-old pupil during a workshop, 2016