WHAT DO WE DO?

A Short History

The Time Truck was started in 1998 by enthusiastic students from the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Cambridge as a contribution to the National Science Week (now the Cambridge Science Festival within Cambridge). The project started off visiting local primary schools throughout this week, running teaching sessions out of the back of the truck. For the first three years the project was run as an offshoot of the Sedgwick Club, a club for geologist undergraduates. Time Truck relies entirely on the support both financially and in terms of donated materials. Our sponsors range from local industry to national charitable bodies.

Our Aim

Today the Time Truck is run separately to the Sedgwick Club, but the original purpose and drive is the same, to take the enthusiasm and knowledge of Cambridge geology students out into the community to share it with others and in turn enthuse them with our wonderful subject. Time Truck shares very close links with the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences in Cambridge. The museum lends the Truck many of it's exhibits, including real rocks and fossil specimens. We can take these museum specimens out into local schools giving children a unique opportunity to handle them and learn about geology using an interactive, hands-on approach. By teaching using these methods, we hope to encourage interest and enthusiasm for science in general and particularly for the Earth as a planet, and to make science accessible to children. In our school visits we have chosen to focus on primary school children, the scientists of the future. The interactive geological activities and exhibits are designed to help children aged 7-11 and their teachers to learn in a fun and informal environment. We run two teaching sessions per day throughout National Science Week, either visiting two schools or two classes in one school. During each session we can teach up to 30 children, who rotate in groups of up to ten around three activity stations: The Truck, a display of exhibits and experiments; Discovering fossils, and the Time Truck film about geological time and life; and Investigating rocks and minerals through the rock cycle.

Each week we can run ten sessions, reaching up to 300 local children. On the Saturday at the end of science week we open up the Truck to the public, on the day of the opening of Cambridge Science Festival. This open day is at the Department of Earth Sciences in Cambridge and is free to all.

Please use the links to the right to find additonal information about what we teach and for teaching resources, as well as information about our OPEN DAYS, where anyone can come and visit the Time Truck.

NOTE: To download the teacher's pack (downloadable by clicking on the link at the base of this page) you will need Abobe Reader (which is free for download here). Either click on the link to open it in your browser or to download right-click and select "save link as" or "save target as".