The stars, the world, and two old friends

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The Museum regularly hosts workshops for lots of different audiences – adults, families, prospective students, and school groups – as a way of providing access to the collections through hands-on activities. Working with the Oxford University Museums and Collections outreach team, we recently delivered a workshop for adults with learning disabilities, focused on the Museum’s collections of terrestrial and celestial globes.

Community outreach officer Nicola Bird welcomed 17 adults and their helpers for a morning of discovery here. The group searched for globes over the three galleries, looking for signs, constellations, oceans and countries that they recognised. They discussed with wonder how previous generations mapped the world and the stars using ancient and emerging techniques; and they considered the globes’ uses in navigation and time-telling.

After exploring the Museum, everyone gathered around the large table in the Basement Gallery to have a go at making their own globes to take home to show friends and families.

Everyone has a go at making their own terrestrial or celestial globe

“We all had such a fantastic time – people had the opportunity to show off how much they already knew about globes and how we use them. Everyone made and took home at least one globe: I was very impressed with everyone’s knowledge and ability to make the globes, covering them with 12 segments from the map,” says Nicola Bird.

The finished article

It’s great to hear that the participants enjoyed the session too, learning about the Museum at the same time: “I enjoyed discovering a space I never knew existed, creating my very own celestial globe. I would like to return to the museum as a regular member of the public.”

As with most workshops, there was an element of the unpredictable too. During the session, one man recognised an old friend, someone he had not seen for over 20 years. The pair used to have a cup of tea together every week and really enjoyed seeing each other again after such a long time. What a coincidence. You might say that it was written in the stars…

These workshops are organised in partnership with the Community Education outreach officers, the Museum, and Paula Simmonds from Oxfordshire Skills and Learning Service. Paula coordinates workshops and classes all over the county for people with learning disabilities.

Oxford University Museums and Collections Outreach is led by Susan Griffiths and Nicola Bird who represent the University’s Museum of the History of Science, Ashmolean, Pitt Rivers Museum, Museum of Natural History, and the Botanic Garden and Harcourt Arboretum. The team aims to break down real or perceived barriers to visiting the University’s museums and collections by taking collections material out to groups all over the county. To find out more, visit the outreach website.

A report from the ‘red carpet’

Objects of Invention

Our Objects of Invention public engagement initiative with the Department of Engineering Sciences, which reached the national finals in this year’s Engage Competition, was made possible thanks to the efforts of 18 engineers and the training in public engagement provided by the Oxford University Museums and Collections Joint Museums Education Service. One of those engineers was DPhil student Justine Schluntz, who attended the awards ceremony at the Natural History Museum in London. Here are Justine’s thoughts about the Objects of Invention project itself and the awards ceremony for the finalists.

DPhil engineer Justine Schluntz (right) with Christopher Parkin of MHS and Caroline Cheeseman of the Joint Museums Education Service at the Engage awards ceremony

“The Objects of Invention project provided public engagement training for engineering students at the University of Oxford (myself included) and culminated in a public event at the Museum of the History of Science which attracted over 2,000 visitors in a single day. We also carried out three schools events at the Museum.

The ceremony in London kicked off with a wonderful talk by Professor Alice Roberts about the importance of public engagement, especially for science researchers. Next, Sophie Duncan, the deputy director of National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement (NCCPE), introduced the finalists for each of the awards. For each award category the audience was treated to a set of excellent short videos summarising the shortlisted projects prior to the announcement of the category winner.

The winner of the STEM category was a project called “The Enlightenment Café: Deadinburgh”.  The Deadinburgh audience worked with scientists and actors to learn about epidemiology and solve a mock zombie epidemic in Edinburgh.

We had the opportunity to meet some of the amazing people who had worked on other shortlisted projects at a reception following the awards ceremony. The atmosphere was brilliantly upbeat, and we left with a wealth of ideas, which we will look to implement in future public engagement projects.”

Thanks to Justine for her write-up of the event and for getting involved in the project in the first place. Although we didn’t win, to be shortlisted from over 240 entrants nationally is a great testament to everyone’s hard work and skill.

Road trip to the British Museum

MHS_OITF_14Earlier this week a rare event occurred: all the staff at the MHS (well, lots of us anyway) headed away from the Museum for a day out together. It was part pleasure, part professional – visiting the British Museum in London for some behind-the-scenes snooping around, and the chance to share a few insights with the staff there.

The Sutton Hoo helmet

The trip was arranged especially by our new director, Dr Silke Ackermann, who worked at the British Museum in a range of leadership roles for 16 years, after joining in 1995. Handily, this permitted special access and we got to see inside the BM’s new World Conservation and Exhibitions Centre, a project that has been ten years in the planning and construction. It is an impressive space, as yet unfilled with objects but primed to receive them with shelves and doorways large enough for lifting trucks to deliver even the biggest of treasures.

A curator-led talk of the redesigned Sutton Hoo displays revealed some of the nerdy display tricks that museum people are always on the look-out for; in this instance it was the use of non-reflective glass for the showcases. We also got an introduction to the current Vikings: Life and Legend exhibition, which really helped to bring its material to life.

Tea point: the most important room in the building

But it’s not always the high-impact displays themselves that catch your attention. For our volunteer tour guide Ken Taylor, the highlight was the tour of the old Victorian passageways and tunnels – made even smaller by the cable and ventilation trunking of the new facility.

“It was like walking through a scale model of the London Underground and then into the new building – what a contrast! Huge, light and airy rooms, the enormous doors you could drive a lorry through, and a lift that could transport articulated trucks down to the basement,” he says.

Getting out and about like this to talk to colleagues in other museums and pick up tips, tricks and inspiration from the way other people work can obviously be very valuable. Thanks very much to the BM for hosting us. We hope that this away day will be the first of more regular jollies to come.