New list reveals most ‘fun’ educational visitor attractions in West Yorkshire

According to various scientific research papers, the human brain is more receptive to learning when having fun. Accordingly, a survey was carried out to find out which of the UK’s educational visitor attractions was the most ‘fun’ and therefore the best at helping people learn and remember scientific or historical information.

The company that commissioned the research, Saturn Visual Solutions, has subsequently created a list of the ‘UK’s top 50 most fun educational visitor attractions’. The rankings are based on the number of people that named the site as a ‘fun’ attraction, rather than metrics like visitor numbers which tend to discount many smaller educational visitor attractions.

Two visitor attractions in West Yorkshire were listed. The Royal Armouries was the highest ranked in Yorkshire. It got six per cent of the votes and was ranked 14th overall in the UK-wide rankings. It is free to enter and has collections of armoury and weapons ranging from iconic movie props to Henry VIII’s armour.

Nat Edwards, Director General and Master of the Royal Armouries said, “We are thrilled to be recognised as the top educational attraction in West Yorkshire. Our team is always looking at new ways to create innovative and entertaining experiences for visitors of all ages.

"A fantastic example of this is our brand new Digital Playground, an immersive interactive that lets visitors engage with and learn from a host of historical characters - a first for a museum in Europe.

"This ranking is a testament to our dedicated team and their efforts to make history come alive in a fun and memorable way.”

Eureka! The National Children’s Museum in Halifax, which features interactive experiments and learning experiences, was the second most popular educational visitor attraction in West Yorkshire and 18th in the overall rankings.

Saturn CEO, Chris Welsh, said: “Every year there are tables of data about which visitor attractions are the most popular, but something that’s often overlooked is how much ‘fun’ they are. Both adults and children are more likely to learn and remember information if it’s part of a ‘fun’ experience, so we thought that it was important to find out which educational visitor attractions were most successful in making learning fun.

Saturn Visual Solutions is a digital signage consultancy that works with leisure businesses and charities to help them make the ‘visitor experience’ more engaging and fun.