The History of Science: Ancient Civilisations

Long before laboratories, computers and modern technology, people were already asking extraordinary questions about the world around them — and finding ingenious ways to answer them. This five-day journey takes children across some of the world’s great ancient civilisations, uncovering the science, engineering and ideas that shaped human history. From paper, maps and the compass in Ancient China, to Archimedes, atomic theory and early medicine in Ancient Greece; from the remarkable engineering of the Egyptians, to the cities, farming systems and discovery of rubber in the Americas; and finally to the extraordinary inventions of Ancient India and Rome.

Children will explore how people understood forces, flight, earthquakes, materials, medicine, astronomy, water and architecture, while discovering the stories behind inventions such as the seismograph, kite, rockets, Roman concrete, aqueducts and water mills.

At the heart of the week is a simple but powerful idea: Science did not begin in a modern laboratory. It began with human curiosity.

Across different cultures and thousands of years, people observed the world, asked questions, tested ideas and invented solutions to the problems they faced. This journey gives children the opportunity to see science not as a collection of discoveries, but as part of the long human story of curiosity, ingenuity and the desire to understand our world.