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Build the Change Events: Helping Today’s Dinosaurs
We’ve teamed up with the LEGO Group's Build the Change programme to offer free nature-focused educational activities for children at the Museum, inspired by our thought-provoking teachers’ course pack.
Through our family, schools, and community programmes, since summer 2023 we’ve invited children to unleash their creativity and imagination to help build solutions to the impacts of human activity on the planet – and on today’s dinosaurs, birds!
Thanks to our national partners, we’re delighted that these Build the Change activities will be tailored and delivered across the UK from summer 2024, continuing to inspire young people to connect with nature through play. These fun and engaging programmes will be running at:
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Build the Change: Teachers' Resource
We could not be more excited to partner with LEGO once again. This time we've teamed up to produce a free teacher's resource pack as part of LEGO Group's Build the Change Programme. The pack contains engaging Key Stage 2 lessons that allow pupils to explore the impact of human activity on the planet by using birds - the modern-day descendants of the dinosaurs - to put our effects on the environment in context. These lessons are designed to inspire pupils to come up with solutions to real-world challenges using whatever teachers have available in their classrooms.
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LEGO® Life Forms
Following the huge success of Mission to Mars and to celebrate the Museum's space season, we teamed up with the LEGO Group once again to engage even more audiences in space exploration. This time, we worked with LEGO Group designers to create four landscapes, each inspired by what science currently understands about exoplanets and moons.
In a mass build event, we challenged families and community groups to use their imagination and predict what life might look like in other parts of the galaxy. Participants were asked to select one of four landscapes and build their own LEGO® Life Forms, thinking about what adaptations they would need to be able to survive in those conditions. We even brought along some real Museum specimens to highlight the adaptations that living things have on Earth.
Over two weeks we were able to engage with almost 10,000 children and adults. We also managed to involve multiple families in exciting conversations about different planetary landscapes, and we were thrilled to see so many of them working together and making memories through learning.
Meet some of our participants' very own creations!
Landscape environment: Ultraviolet Desert
Adaptations: 'Very tall so that he can see far across the desert and the hills. His colours match the sand so that he can hide. If a tree does grow here he can reach it to eat the leaves. He has holes that blow out the hot air to keep him cooler.'
Landscape environment: Volcano and Ash
Adaptations: 'Red so that he can hide well. The eyes move around so that it can look around for danger. Its skin is normally very hot and it’s thick because it is used to the lava which is why it is Prince of the Lava. It also looks friendly to make friends to keep it safe.'
Landscape environment: Twilight Rocky Mountains
Adaptations: 'This is a fully grown adult protecting its young, hence the toothy exterior to ward off predators. The jets of fire light the way in the dark and provide heat. The horns also glow in the dark. The young one has springs on the bottom of its feet to help it jump up the rocky mountains.'
If you would like to learn more about adaptation and space exploration, have a go at creating your own LEGO Life Forms at home. We adapted LEGO Life Forms into a digital activity during the Museum's closure to ensure educational activities remained accessible for everyone at home.
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Mission to Mars: LEGO® Explorers
To continue our exciting partnership, we turned to one of the Museum's most exciting research areas: space. Using our science and LEGO educational WeDo kits, we created an immersive and playful workshop where pupils are tasked with building, coding and launching their own rover to explore a realistic Martian landscape.
By integrating key aspects of the Design Technology, Computing and Science curriculum into this workshop, we created a fully immersive, engaging and fun learning through play activity.
Mission to Mars: LEGO® Explorers Workshop was hugely successful with fantastic feedback from students and teachers alike. It has since been adapted and implemented with family and adult audiences showcasing the versatility and importance of LEGO brick-inspired education for everyone. To hear more about how schools can book onto the workshop, click here.
“At the LEGO Group we want to make a positive impact on the world for children. Through the partnership with the Natural History Museum we aim to inspire children's imagination and creativity as well as an understanding of important sustainability issues.”
Tim Brooks
Vice President, Environmental Responsibility at the LEGO Group
Get in touch
Corporate Partnerships
Development Group
The Natural History Museum
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London SW7 5BD
+44 (0)20 7942 5534
Our partnerships
Find out more about the Natural History Museum's corporate partnerships by reading our case studies.