The ‘Tools of the Trade’ project is a collaboration between local artists, primary schools, BEES, Tyndall, Cork Printmakers and Cork Bookbinders to foster creativity and inquiry regarding science among schoolchildren, using scientific instruments and objects as a focus for activities. The schoolchildren involved studied instruments and objects from our laboratories and collections, both on site and using materials loaned to their classrooms in spring 2017, and over the course of several weeks made drawings, interpretations, and installations. The childrens’ work was displayed together with the relevant instruments in a multi-site exhibition held concurrently in the partner institutions.