1830 Express
Hop on the 1830 Express and step back to a time to when cotton was king and railways were about to change the world forever. Buy a ticket to ride the world’s first ever passenger railway ride and you’ll experience a train ride like no other. MOSI’s team take you on an action-packed, whistle stop tour of the railways whilst you speed up and down the original track that carried passengers from Manchester to Liverpool in 1830.
Tickets cost £4 per adult, £2 per child, under 2s go free and a family ticket is £12 for two adults and two children
PLAY It! Manchester
March 25 – April 17
Recommended for aged 5+
Msimanchester.org.uk
Back by popular demand and in time for the Easter Holiday, is the Museum of Science and Industry’s family friendly and hands-on video gaming event, PLAY it! Manchester. Featuring more consoles, more Minecraft, more games and pretty much more everything.
Running as part of the museum’s Power holiday programme for Easter, gamer girls and boys are in for a non- chocolate covered treat. With over 180 systems and thousands of games to play on – from Pong and Pacman to Lego and Halo – there is a game to suit beginners and experts, competitive dads, multiplayers, retro fans and everybody else in between. Booking in advance is recommended via msimanchester.org.uk
Engine Demonstrations
Watch as the Museum of Science and Industry fires up the machines which have powered Manchester for the last 300 years; experience the sounds and smells of our water, steam, gas and diesel engines. This powerful demonstration introduces the ideas and innovations that sparked a world-wide revolution.
Ages 7+
The Power Hall – 11am, 1pm, 3pm (Duration 20 minutes)
Manchester Mills
What’s a flying shuttle? Where’s the Devil-Hole? And who’s a scavenger? Learn about the shift from manpower to machine power and how the textile industry built our city. This thunderous demonstration of historic mill machinery spins, bobs and weaves cotton into cloth.
Ages 7+
Textiles Gallery, Great Western Warehouse – 11:30am, 3:30pm (Duration 25 minutes)
Circuit City
Get the shock of your life in this electrifying, interactive science show. Generate your own electricity, use an antique hair dryer, and watch one unlucky volunteer get zapped as we follow a current around Manchester’s power grid in 1893.
Ages 7+
Room 2, The Learning Loft – 11am, 1pm, 3pm (Duration 25 minutes)
Inventors wanted
It’s 1885 and inventor Hans Renolds needs your help to win the Big Bike Race. In this mischievous and energetic show we’ll explore inventions amazing and awful, and create a machine that will change the world.
Ages 4+
Warehouse for the World, 1830s Warehouse – 11:30am, 1:30pm, 3:30pm (Duration 20 minutes)
Control It: Create a Circuit
What’s inside your game controller? Take your knowledge of electricity to the next level. Get wired by making your own working circuit to take home in this drop-in workshop.
Ages 7+
Revolution Manchester Gallery – 10am – 12pm daily, drop in
Crane Construction: Under Pressure
Can you work under pressure? Build a simple lifting machine to take home that works on air pressure and raise the bar – how much can your machine lift?
Charges apply: £2.00 ea. Please purchase tickets at the 1830 Warehouse information desk.
Ages 7+
£2.00 each, spaces limited – 1pm, 2pm, 3pm (Duration: 30 mins)
Pi: Platform for Investigation – Alienated Life: Chernobyl
Saturday 23 and Sunday 24 April – 10.30am – 3.30pm
Discover a virtual reality experience as the monthly Platform for Investigation marks the 30th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. Find out about the wild animals that have made their home in this no-go area and how they have adapted to the remaining radioactive contamination, via the perspective of the new Oculus Rift virtual reality system.
Wellcome Image Awards 2016
Station Building
Suitable for all ages
Wellcome Images is one of the world’s richest and most distinctive image collections, covering themes ranging from medical and social history to contemporary healthcare and biomedical science. For the third year running, the museum is proud to host 20 award-winning images, created using cutting-edge techniques. Bringing to life the vibrancy of a world of science normally hidden to the naked eye, these stunning and breathe-taking images celebrate what science can generate.
Heart to Heart
Station Building
Taiwanese artist Yu-Chen Wang was the museum’s 2015 artist-in-residence, supported by the Taipei Representative Office in the UK. Her research on machine objects in the museum’s collection has inspired Heart to Heart, an ambitious multimedia presentation that explores the human qualities in machines and includes a science fiction text, live performances, a film and an installation.
It is part of Manchester Art Gallery’s The Imitation Game, an exhibition by eight international contemporary artists that examines the theme of machines and the imitation of life.
Heart To Heart will be displayed across both Manchester Art Gallery and the museum’s historic first class booking hall in the Station Building.
The Innovation Race: Manchester’s Makers Join the First World War
Running until 16 April
Station Building
Recommended for ages 9+
This family friendly exhibition features over 30 unique and original never before seen artefacts, images and documents to bring to life the largely untold stories of how Mancunian innovation helped to turn around the outcome of the First World War. Tied in with the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the Ministry of Munitions, this family friendly exhibition – complete with hands-on gadgets – commemorates David Lloyd George’s visit to Manchester where his rally call for the city’s makers to step up their war effort resulted in the overwhelming support from the ordinary factory worker to the most eminent scientists and engineers.
Evaporation
1830 Warehouse
All Ages
See seas, oceans and tides celebrated in sculptural form by artist Tania Kovats. Winner of Cape Farewell’s James Lovelock Art Commission for 2015 and also a world premiere, Evaporation comprises a range of works including three large-scale metal bowls which reflect the shapes of the world’s oceans with their own salt water hydro-cycle. Also on display is one other of Kovat’s acclaimed work, All The Seas presenting water from all the world’s seas, collected with the help of a global network of people drawn in by the idea of bringing all the waters of the world to one place.
Cravings: Does Your Food Control You?
1830 Warehouse
Suitable for ages 11+
From flavours learned in the womb to experiences in adult life, appetites are shaped by food. Through personal stories, the smells of Manchester, fascinating objects and cutting-edge science, this colourful and tasty exhibition explores how food affects the body, brain and eating habits.
4D Cinema
Daily 11am – 3.40pm (every 20 minutes)
£4 adults/£3 concessions
Dare you break into the museum, steal the pirate’s treasure and unleash the curse? Go on a swashbuckling, night-time 4D adventure to outwit the ancient spell.
Let the sights, sounds and sensations of the 4D cinema transport you into another dimension. Use all of your senses to make your way through the obstacle course and to escape with the treasure…and your life!
