A record-breaking year for learning and outreach

The Science Museum Group's unique approach to outreach and knowledge sharing helped nearly 2 million under-16s to learn something new and exciting last year – and all in a setting as far removed from a classroom as you could imagine.

In addition to the core audience of family visitors, the Group received 600,000 visitors in booked education groups, setting a new record at the Science Museum in the process, while 111,000 people enjoyed our Outreach activities off-site and a further 39,000 were reached thanks to the expansion of the Science Museum Live On Tour! programme of theatre performances.

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During the February half-term at the National Media Museum, nearly 40,000 kids and their parents enjoyed the Moshi Monster week, a fun festival based on adoptable pet monsters and aimed at helping 6-to-12-year olds stay safe online.

We also broadened the reach of our online learning resources to include the 1.6 million web users of the Times Educational Supplement, while the Talk Science blog for teachers featured topical science news relevant to the classroom. An online suite of educational games called Futurecade, in which budding digerati can discuss emerging technologies, was created with input from teenagers themselves. Since its launch in 2011, it has received over a quarter of a million visits.

Director Ian Blatchford says: "A worry for me about education is that we tend to persuade children to study science in order to become professional scientists. At SMG our ambitions are bolder: we want more people of all ages to engage with science and technology not only because they are forces for good, but scientific literacy and deeper understanding will increase the effectiveness of workforces all across industry and government."