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Once you leave the escalator one of the first displays you come to shows the location of major seismic events over the previous six days, a nice touch as it keeps things up to date. From here you move into the area dealing with the Mount Pinatubo eruption where recordings of TV (ITN) coverage of Mount Pinatubo are on constant display. After the Pinatubo display comes a section in which you walk beneath a volcano. This display is certainly a good idea but to be honest it didn't really seem to achieve anything as a far as I was concerned. The vent of the volcano glows as an eruption is building and some lava then glows on the outside of the volcano - but that's about it! The whole thing looks rather cheap and amateur, surprising considering the quality of the vast majority of the new exhibits. Anyway around this glowing volcano is a section dealing with some famous volcanic eruptions of the past, which includes a moulded cast of some victims of the Pompeii eruption.
Moving onwards from this part of the gallery you will find two exceptionally good touch screen exhibits on your left hand side which explain the movement of crustal plates at various points around the world. Two animated characters help explain the ideas very well indeed and it helps to make up for that disappointing volcano! You now arrive at the final part of the gallery in which you can stand in a mock up of a Japanese supermarket and experience the Kobe earthquake.
Moving onto the other new gallery called Restless Surface, there is a distinct change in the nature of the displays. Here there are a great many simple 'hands-on' type exhibits dealing with the forces of erosion and weathering on the surface of the earth. Once through the first section you'll see a large video screen which immediately attracts your attention but don't miss the touch screen display underneath it. This is an excellent exhibit showing how various landforms have developed as a result of the actions of the wind, water etc. It takes quite a time to go right through this exhibit but try and catch some of it as a great many people did seem to miss it out altogether.
The last part of the Restless Surface has the greatest number of the 'hands-on' exhibits which are very effective. For instance one of them helps show how the difference in the shape of particles affects how much they can be compacted. Another display shows how running water carves out small rivulets and streams. Whilst these exhibits are very simple they do bring the topics of erosion and weathering alive quite well which is no mean feat!
Overall then, these new style exhibits are such an improvement from those of the old Geological Museum that comparison is almost meaningless. They are clearly explained in non-technical language and on the whole are extremely effective. Whilst I cannot comment on the quality of the support materials supplied by the museum (purely because I haven't seen them) I would certainly recommend a visit for your geography classes, there's plenty here to attract their attention and get them thinking.
School visits to the Natural History Museum are free if they are booked in advance, telephone 0171 938 9090 for more details. Planning visits for teachers are also free, contact the Teacher's Centre on 0171 938 8744.