Where can you explore deepest space, find out how doctors perform life-saving surgery and travel back in time to Birmingham’s amazing industrial past, all under one roof? Thinktank, Birmingham’s award-winning science museum offers an extraordinary, fun-packed day out for families and school groups. From steam engines to intestines, Thinktank has over 200 interactive displays on science and discovery from the past, present and future. This includes the state-of-the-art Planetarium, where you can tour the night sky and fly through the galaxy without stepping a foot outside! Thinktank also offers a huge range of educational activities for children and families, including workshops, story-telling and science shows.
NEW for 2007- Thinktank has recently opened Recycle! a new exhibition exploring the surprising science behind domestic recycling. The interactive exhibition focuses on the issues and science of household waste, specifically compost, plastic and aluminium. Visitors can learn how to identify, test and sort their rubbish, find out what happens to rubbish when it is recycled and marvel at the unexpected objects that may be made from everyday domestic waste. To support the exhibition, Thinktank is running new recycling-based workshops for young visitors, and a ‘What a Load of Rubbish!’ interactive family science show.
Special Family Events & Activities
What a Load of Rubbish Show
Ever fancied being on a game show? This interactive family science show invites you to become contestants in a game all about Reducing, Reusing and Recycling. Rubbish has never been this much fun!
Thinktank Theatre
Weekends
12.30pm and 2.30pm
Free to Thinktank ticket holders
Wacky Waste Workshop
Come and join in our Wacky Waste Workshop. Games, activities and wriggly worms will show you how Reducing, Reusing and Recycling will help our environment.
Science lab
Weekends
Free to Thinktank ticket holders
Regular Family Events & Activities
All events are FREE to Thinktank ticket holders unless stated otherwise
Live Silversmith Demonstrations
Our resident silversmith uses traditional Birmingham craftsmanship to create decorative items out of silver bullion. Join him every Saturday for a lively chat and demonstration.
Most Saturdays
10.00am – 4.00pm
Full Steam Ahead
Every day our heritage team powers up a steam-driven engine. Watch these magnificent machines rumble into life, snorting steam and pounding with power.
Daily
11.00am – 3.00pm
Sensational Sea Life Tour
In this multi-sensory experience, sight, sound, smell and touch used to explore a range of creatures that live and have lived beneath the waves.
Suitable for young people with sensory impairments.
Advance booking essential. Call 0121 202 2244.
Discovery Packs
Discovery Packs are bright orange backpacks crammed full of activities to help families with young children explore the historical collections together. Please ask a member of staff who will provide the most suitable discovery pack for you.
Daily
Under 7s
Activities for Adults
Swapping Stories
If you would like to bring a group to Thinktank to take part in our bespoke handling and reminiscence sessions, please contact us on 0121 202 2244 to arrange a date and time.
Five Favourites Tour
Take a tour of the exhibitions with one of our lively team of Gallery Enablers and examine five of their favourite exhibits. Tours last approx 30 minutes. Book at the ticket desk on arrival.
Available throughout the day
Evening Events for Adults
Unless otherwise stated, evening events are FREE
Seating is limited so booking is essential
Tel: 0121-202 2222 or tickets@thinktank.ac
Engineering Bacteria
Dr Julie MacPherson (University of Warwick)
Thursday 17th May, 6.00pm
Dr Julie Macpherson will be talking about their new work which involves getting bacteria to naturally modify and create old and new drugs that would otherwise be highly complex and expensive to make synthetically.
Thinktank Theatre, Level G0
Planetarium
Immerse yourself in the stars- without placing a foot outside! Sit back and enjoy a tour of the night sky, and be spellbound as we fly you through the galaxy in our state-of-the-art digital Planetarium.
Stars and Stories
(20 minutes, all ages)
Explore the ever-changing night sky as seen from the West Midlands, through our fun and interactive presenter-led show accessible to under 7s.
Weekends
Tonight’s Sky
(40min, over 7s)
Explore the West Midlands night sky, spot naked-eye objects and have complex astronomy concepts explained. Complete your adventure with a Q&A session, and our locally produced fulldome film ‘Journey to Infinity’.
Selected weekends only
Wonders of the Universe
(20min, all ages)
Peer deep into Space through the eyes of the Hubble Space Telescope and travel back billions of years to witness the birth of the Universe.
Daily
Stars of the Pharaohs
(40min, all ages)
Learn about the connection the ancient Egyptians felt with the stars, and see some of the most spectacular temples and tombs of the ancient world recreated in their original splendour.
Daily
IMAX
*Night at the Museum: The IMAX Experience
(108 minutes, PG)
Combining IMAX projection technology and state-of-the-art digital surround sound, cinema-goers will be virtually transported inside 'Night at the Museum' this Easter. Good-hearted dreamer Larry Daley (Ben Stiller) takes on what appears to be a menial job as a night-shift security guard at a natural history museum. However, during Larry's watch, extraordinary things begin to occur: Mayans, Roman Gladiators, and cowboys emerge to wage epic battles; Attila the Hun pillages his neighbouring exhibits, and a T-Rex reminds everyone why he's history's fiercest predator!
*Open Season 3D
(99 minutes, PG)
Showing in eye-popping 3D, Open Season tells the story of Boog (Martin Lawrence), a grizzly bear with no survival skills, as his perfect world turned upside-down when he meets Elliot (Ashton Kutcher), a scrawny, fast-talking wild mule deer. The spectacular IMAX 3D effects will provide you with a completely immersive cinematic experience, ducking as acorns fly overhead and feeling the roller-coaster-like thrill of going over waterfalls.
Roving Mars
(40 minutes, U)
“ROVING MARS” is an exciting adventure that follows the journey of NASA’s Mars Exploration Rovers through the eyes of scientists and engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Steve Squyres, the lead science investigator from Cornell University. Their collective dream of Mars exploration came true when two rovers landed on Mars and began their scientific quest to understand whether Mars ever could have been a habitat for life.
Deep Sea 3D
(40 minutes, PG)
Through the magic of IMAX 3D technology, audiences will be transported below the ocean surface to swim with some of the planet’s most unique, dangerous and colourful creatures, from the unusual Wolf Eel to the Giant Pacific Octopus.
T- Rex: Back to the Cretaceous 3D
(40 minutes, U)
16 year old Ally Hayden is about to go on a remarkable pre-historic adventure! When Ally, the daughter of Paleontologist Dr. Donald Hayden accidentally disturbs a very special fossil egg, she is magically transported back 65 million years to the Cretaceous Period.
Bugs! 3D
(40 minutes, U)
Narrated by Dame Judi Dench, Bugs! is a live-action nature drama filmed in awe inspiring, totally immersive 3D. Combining incredible footage with cutting edge IMAX technology Bugs! brings you an exciting, entertaining and enlightening show about the creatures that share our planet.
Wild Safari 3D
(45 minutes, U)
Wild Safari 3D places you in an open-air vehicle for a journey through the diverse South African game reserves, and brings you face-to-face with charging elephants, elusive leopards and hungry lions. Never before has wildlife been seen with such realism on the giant screen.
Key information
Thinktank, Birmingham’s science museum, and the IMAX® Cinema are housed at Millennium Point, Curzon Street, just a seven minute walk from Bullring shopping centre and Moor Street Station and 15 minutes walk from New Street Station. The car park is accessed from Jennens Road – follow the brown tourist information signs to ‘Thinktank at Millennium Point’.
Thinktank is open seven days a week 10.00am- 5.00pm.
IMAX is open seven days a week.
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