Developing New Outreach sessions: Summer Reading Challenge, "Mythical Maze" - Rachel McLaughlin

Every summer, the Summer Reading Challenge encourages children aged four to eleven to read 6 books of their own choice over the summer holidays. This year the theme is “Mythical Maze” and Oxford University Museums and Collections Outreach are putting on a series of events in libraries around Oxfordshire as part of this event. Over the last few weeks, I have been developing the session plan to be run every day over two weeks in August. We will be taking museum objects out into libraries around the county and involving them in storytelling to link to the challenge.

These sessions are particularly aimed at 5-10 year olds and will involve a story based round the theme of “mythical maze” that includes 5 museum objects – one from each of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, the Pitt Rivers, the Ashmolean, the Botanic Garden and the Museum of the History of Science.

Writing a story from scratch was harder than I expected it to be. I have previously told stories, but I’ve always learnt from other people telling them. To prepare, I researched mazes and labyrinths, looked at Greek myths, and even learnt how to draw a labyrinth from memory. This led to some very over-complicated story ideas! Finally, I decided that basing it around a dragon (one of the main characters in the Mythical Maze) was a good starting point, so dragons are our main theme.

This is a great opportunity to get museum objects out into places where they wouldn’t normally be seen, and to introduce the public to the museums in a very friendly way. The events are all about talking to people and letting them have fun. 

Over the fortnight of events, I will begin by observing some sessions and learning how they’re run, and by the end I will be running some of them myself. I am very much looking forward to learning how to run these sessions and getting out and about to libraries around Oxfordshire this summer.

'How People Learn' training day at the Museum of the History of Science - Jenny Hulmes

This was our first training day which focused on the ways in which people learn. We began the session at the Museum of the History of Science by recalling and discussing our own experiences of how we learned to do something. Fellow trainee Rachel described her time at camp and how reciting songs and rhymes around the camp fire helped her learn in a way that was fun and multisensory. Whilst Hannah relayed how she used a visual style of learning by which she associated information with objects and colours, in order to help her recall it at a later time.

Array of hats representing different learning theories

With the help of customised hats made by Chris to illustrate different learning theories, it was apparent that learning can be a very personal experience to each individual so it's ineffectual to impose one learning style on everybody. Instead its important to take elements from each theory to help inform practise, whether it be constructivist, cognitive or behaviourist. We saw that many museums like to go down the constructivist route which allows for greater audience participation with the aid of interactives, the Antenna Live gallery at London's Science Museum being a prime example. We discussed the benefits of museums like these, but also agreed that some audiences might crave a more structured orderly learning environment with a clear route; again, it depends on the individual.

As facilitators for learning we strive to create a learning environment that is inspiring, creative and most importantly, enjoyable. For me, the most significant thing I took away from this training day, and demonstrated by Chris with a coffee and doughnut hat, is that it is essential for the learner to feel comfortable and at ease in the environment they're in.  As museum educators, it is imperative that we make a conscious effort to do this, especially as some museums and collections may appear quite overwhelming and even daunting at first.

Alice's Day Schools event at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History - Aisling Serrant

Last Saturday was Alice’s Day in Oxford with lots of activities around the city. The theme was ‘Alice’s Adventures Underground’ which was the book’s original title.

The  Oxford University Museum of Natural History had plenty going on with an ‘Underground’ themed trail and object handling inside the museum, and a very interactive Alice in Wonderland play by Oxford Brookes’ Fortune Tellers out on the lawn which went down a treat with the children. I really enjoyed watching the play as it had some great examples of how to involve the audience and make them feel part of the play which is something I haven’t really seen before. We all had to follow Alice on her adventures to different areas of the lawn. When she fell down the rabbit hole we had to run under a sheet of black material and when the cards were painting the Queen of Heart’s roses red, the children all got given red colouring pencils to help colour them in.

On the Friday I helped run an Alice’s Day schools event at the museum. There were 60 Yr4 students who were split into 3 groups of 20. There were 3 main activities for the children to take part in, an ‘underground’ spy trail and craft activity led by education officers Simone and Rachel, and an object handling session led by me. 

I was really excited to be given the opportunity to run the session as it was the first teaching I have done on my traineeship. It was in the form of 3 back-to-back 30 minute handling sessions which I led completely on my own in a separate area of the museum from the other activities. I used various animals which feature as characters in the story – a cast of the dodo head, a dormouse and hare taxidermy specimens, a caterpillar, some butterflies and a flamingo skull. 

All in all I was pleased with how I did. I found it very helpful to be able to repeat the activity 3 times in the same day as each time I grew more confident and able to tweak bits to make my performance better each time. By the last session I felt comfortable being able to teach about the objects and hold the attention of the group. The only real problem I found was that I couldn’t answer some of the specific questions the groups asked, for example how many eggs butterflies lay, because I don’t yet have enough knowledge about Natural History. I guess I’ve got some homework to do!

Need,Make,Use at the Pitt Rivers Museum

 Need, Make, Use workshop for Secondary & Adult groups- Hannah Eastwood

Today I assisted with a fantastic workshop at the Pitt Rivers Museum called 'Need,Make,Use' alongside education officers Maya & Salma. 104 year 8 students visited in 3 groups throughout the day.

The workshop aimed to get people thinking about how and why humans make the objects they need, what kinds of factors affect an object and how it fulfills its function e.g. by its materials, design, colours, patterns, symbols, decoration.

© Pitt Rivers Museum

It is a workshop about human creativity and ingenuity, how people use the materials they have around them to make objects they need – weapons, tools and clothing, making fire and hunting

Students were asked to select a ‘scenario’ and to link this with an object that they would then design depending on their identity, environment & need. They would then also take a crib sheet with various examples of objects around the museum that would link with their ‘need’.

© Pitt Rivers Museum

I also assisted with the object handling tables, where they would discover objects that related to their topic and would realise how objects have been made with a need or purpose in mind. 

Their exciting task was to explore the museum to find inspiration from the objects on display, and to then design their own object based on their thoughts by linking their scenarios. 

© Pitt Rivers Museum

It was wonderful to be part of their discussions and to help them make their decisions through smart critical thinking about objects. 

The year 8s were brilliant designers and they came up with some excellent imaginative ideas for their objects. 

This was the very first time the workshop was delivered so I also had the opportunity to evaluate and discuss as a group, how we felt the session went. It was a fascinating and rewarding experience to take part and I am interested to see how this project can be re-used and developed for older audiences in the future.