At each stop on the walk there will be a story and an activity. Worksheets for children to use during the walk need to be downloaded and printed off at school and brought with you.
Stop 1 | Stop 2 | Stop 3 | Stop 4 | Stop 5
Story Four:
James Clerk Maxwell (1832–1879)
Old Cavendish Laboratory
This stop takes place at Old Cavendish laboratory and explores the life of James Clerk Maxwell, the first physics professor at the university. He was in charge of getting Cavendish laboratory built, the most advanced scientific laboratory in the world when it was built!
He continued William Gilbert’s work on magnets as well as the work of Isaac Newton, discovering that white light has three primary colours of red, green and blue and that all colours could be made from these 3 colours.
Children have the opportunity to see a false beard and pocket watch of the time and take part in an exercise to try and match two sets of pictures. The task is to work out which magnified picture matches which object.
Background information for teachers