KS3-5 Gallery info

Any of our galleries could be relevant to you and your students, depending on your subject area.

Living Planet, which is full of animals from around the world. Explore the different biomes and appreciate the diversity of life on our planet, from the poles to the equator. Identify adaptations, consider ethical issues like conservation, or sketch nature's wonders.

The Hadrian's Wall gallery, which brings together the life of people from all the diverse sites along the Wall, as well as displaying the stone Hadrian's name is inscribed on. Spanning across the gallery is a miniature model of wall, complete with colour projections showing how the areas around the wall have changed over time. Elsewhere in the gallery, you can find 'people portals' telling the stories of people who lived there at the time, colour projections showing how colourful Roman altars were, as well as Roman artefacts from along the wall.

The Explore and World Cultures galleries give you a chance to look more critically at museums themselves - the influences on what is collected and what isn't, the huge impact of empires on the countries they colonised, and what's being done now in collaboration with diverse communities to rectify past wrongs. See the impact local people have had on the museum's collections and displays in Explore - from pitmen naturalists who collected fossils whilst working in the coalmines, to the group who collaborated with the museum to re-imagine and re-interpret this gallery in 2025. Compare this to World Cultures, which was last updated in 2009, to see how perspectives have changed. Consider the range of objects displayed there, where they came from, and why - what's present and what's not? Please note, World Cultures includes objects that contain human remains, and in Explore you will find a Benin Bronze. 

Fossil Stories, where you can come face to face with a full-sized T. rex!  You can also see a 'living fossil' coelacanth, learn about what our region was like deep in the past or explore evolutionary change over geological time from the Carboniferous to the Cretaceous. Discover the huge amphibians that lived around Newcastle 300 million years ago, find the giant trees or discover ancient fish from prehistoric seas. 

The Ice Age to Iron Age gallery, where you can see a variety of objects from Stone Age to the Iron Age, including stone tools, bronze swords, prehistoric jewellery, animal bones and a Bronze Age burial cist. Most of the objects were collected from sites in North East England, giving the topic local relevance - whether for KS3 local history or as a challenging but rewarding sketching challenge for KS3-5 Art.

Natural Northumbria, where you can find out all about animals that live in our region. Each zone showcases a different habitat, so you can explore which species live where, challenge yourself to figure out each habitat's food web, as well as making links to the named local places that exemplify each habitat. Another great gallery for sketching for budding artists too.

Great Galaxies, our planetarium, is available every day. Explore our planet, journey through the solar system or learn about the history of astronomy. This activity is the only one incurring a charge, with shows starting from £37 for up to 31 people.

We also have galleries dedicated to Ancient Greece and Ancient Egypt. Whilst there are few explicit links to the KS3-4 national curriculum here, they may still be relevant to wider themes like empires, religious and cultural practices in life and death, and human history. They also include objects that provide rich opportunities for photography and sketching.