STEM Learning Resources » Muddy Publishing

Home to one of the world’s largest working steam engines, Kempton Steam Museum brings Britain’s engineering heritage to life. The museum offers visitors the chance to experience the incredible story of steam power, clean water and the industrial innovation that transformed London. To help schools make the most of this unique learning environment, we developed a series of engaging curriculum-linked learning resources designed to inspire primary-aged children.

Working closely with the museum and consulting with Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 teachers, we created a suite of four themed learning presentations covering clean water, energy, power and the water cycle. Each resource is carefully mapped to the National Curriculum, making it easy for teachers to incorporate museum learning into classroom teaching before, during or after a visit.

Universal PowerPoint presentations allowed us to combine animation, interaction and teacher-led flexibility in a familiar format. Teachers can deliver the presentations at their own pace, adapt discussions to suit their class and revisit key concepts whenever needed.

One of the project’s biggest challenges was explaining the museum’s remarkable triple-expansion steam engine in a way that young learners could understand. We developed accessible animated sequences that broke the engineering down into simple, memorable stages, encouraging children to use movement and gestures to represent the different parts of the engine. This embodied learning approach helped transform a complex mechanical process into an engaging classroom experience.

To support a range of teaching styles, each themed presentation is accompanied by guidance notes, delivery suggestions and practical hands-on activity ideas that extend learning beyond the screen. By breaking the content into four focused topics, teachers can explore each theme in manageable sections while building a broader understanding of steam power, clean water, renewable energy, engineering and the water cycle.

We even developed a friendly character ‘Prescott the Apprentice Engineer’ to lead the learning journey and provide constancy throughout the children’s resources on and off site.

The result is a flexible, engaging set of primary school learning resources that helps teachers deliver high-quality STEM education while showcasing the fascinating history and engineering achievements of Kempton Steam Museum.

We’ve added screen grabs to this page however, full, free access to the resources can be found on the Kempton Steam Museum website, or individual elements can be downloaded below:

Key Stage 1: The Great Clean Water Mission

Key Stage 1: Puff, Push, Power

Key Stage 2: From Cloud to Tap

Key Stage 2: Under Pressure, Steam Powered