80-81_Science Museum.qxp_NEW LSB 2008 GRID 10/01/2025 13:10 Page 1
IN CONVERSATION WITH… SCIENCE MUSEUM GROUP
STEM sells
A
Having launched in August 2024, the Science Museum Group’s new STEM badge is proving a versatile addition to its licensing toolkit. Used to indicate toys and games that promote scientific learning through play, it has applications across publishing and the live space too, says the Group’s Head of Licensing and Commercial Partnerships, Amy Harbour.
nyone who has visited any of the six sites under the Science Museum Group umbrella – the Science Museum in London, the Science and Industry Museum in Manchester, the National Railway Museum in York, the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford, Locomotion in County Durham and the Science and Innovation Park in Wiltshire – will know that the ‘wow!’ moments and boundless fun they offer are built on a solid bedrock of educational values. “The Science Museum Group has a really strong history of science learning and communication with children, going right back to 1931 when we opened our first Children's Gallery at the Science Museum,” says Head of Licensing and Commercial Partnerships, Amy Harbour. “We’ve developed our STEM badge as a way of communicating that to parents, carers and educators. It’s a stamp of approval
Right: Amy Harbour, Head of Licensing and Commercial Partnerships. Below: Funtime Gifts’ Mini Plasma Ball is one of the first products to bear the new STEM badge.
from a trusted institution, denoting our decades of hard work and expertise in the sector.” The STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) badge has been applied to licensed toys and games that impart meaningful STEM learning and science communication above and beyond their play value. The first products bearing the badge – including a 3-inch Mini Plasma Ball from new licensee partner Funtime Gifts, available from WH Smith and Waterstones – have already hit the shops, and more will follow in 2025, including a wider selection of Funtime Gifts’ scientific lighting products and new materials science toys, such as slime and putty. “Our STEM badge approved products show how we’re willing to work closely
Inset: Science Museum: The Live Stage Show will tour the UK from February 2025.
80
LICENSING SOURCE BOOK 2025