Funky headgear, family fun and trainee primary school teachers!

In the last few weeks we have been lucky enough to have two sets of trainee primary school teachers placed with us in the education department from Oxford Brookes.  In their third year of doing a BA Hons in Primary Education, the students have been participating in a module called 'Learning Beyond the Classroom'.  As the Primary School Education Officer I mentor them during their placement and model the learning opportunties available for pupils within a museum context.

This placement happens every year and this time I decided to get both sets of students involved in planning family activities.  Many families visit the Pitt Rivers as they want to support learning which is happening at school and as they want a stimulating learning experience.  This experience was certainly given to families at the Amazing Armour Pitt stop on 7th October! James and Rachael created a fabulous trail where families had to track down armour made from amazing materials (crocodile skin, coconut-tree fibre, fish scales, string and much more!).  Participants raved about the trail including a special needs teacher and a primary school teacher all the way from California! Families were also given the chance to try on armour as well as make their own version of a puffer fish helmet.

Planning a family activity on Amazing Armour! © Pitt Rivers Museum

Puffer fish chatting © Pitt Rivers Museum

The second set of students looked at how they could adapt the armour trail designed for a family audience to suit the needs of a primary school audience.   They could draw on their knowledge of the primary curriculum to help create a stimulating self-guided trail. They also worked alongside the new Families and Communities Education Officer, Beth McDougall, to plan family activities for the October half-term on Bats, Cats, Witches and Charms.  The students applied their knowledge and understanding of how learning occurs to craft suitable activities.

Desiging an Armour and Defence Trail © Pitt Rivers Museum

During their placement students also observed a wide range of sesions which are delivered by the education team: a bespoke KS1 Materials session themed round the 'Three Little Pigs', an Arts Award session for Iffley Academy and an extended talk for a visiting Higher Education group. They seemed to enjoy the diversity of sessions and also got stuck in with delivery to primary school kids (teachers will be teachers!)

It is great to work in partnership with Oxford Brookes to help deliver their BA in Primary Education and we look forward to getting another excellent cohort of students next year!  In January we will be showcasing how pupils learn from objects to PGCE students from Oxford Brookes.  I'll keep you posted!

Becca McVean
Education Officer (Primary)

Hands-on experience of museum learning for trainee primary teachers at Oxford Brookes!

We were lucky enough to have four trainee primary school teachers from Oxford Brookes placed in the Education team as they completed a module on learning beyond the classroom.  What better place to come than the Pitt Rivers, a place crammed full of objects and offering so many hands-on primary school sessions.  Here they give an account of their week at the Pitt Rivers:

"As part of our teacher training at Oxford Brookes University, we have spent some time working alongside the staff at the Pitt Rivers Museum.  We gained an insight into how the education department have been providing an engaging learning experience outside the classroom.  During this time we had the opportunity to observe and participate in some of the workshops they have on offer to schools, including hands-on investigation activities and an artefact treasure hunt!

Wielding cooking pots and axes! © Pitt Rivers Museum

We observed both primary schools and home-schooled groups in a great workshop called Stone Age to Iron Age. We explored objects from the Stone Age, Bronze Age and the Iron Age, and had to think which object belonged to which time period. This session was fun and engaging, as it gave children a chance to handle the objects and really explore them to determine their purpose. Having the ability to interact with these objects maintained the children’s interest and encouraged them to use clear, considered reasoning to decide what the objects could be. Both we and the children learnt so much in these sessions.

We also had the chance to observe a guided tour of the museum relating to a particular theme. The children were immediately enthralled by the tour and benefited greatly from knowledgeable guides who were well practised in presenting the information in an interesting way. The guides were also able to answer questions posed to them by the children and involve the teachers in their tasks. Everyone involved in the tour, ourselves included, enjoyed learning new things about some of the objects which are on display. 

Exploring the Pitt Rivers © Pitt Rivers Museum

We fully enjoyed our time at the Pitt Rivers Museum and are grateful to the friendly and knowledgeable staff for allowing us an insight into what they do. We would definitely recommend that teachers look at what the Museum has to offer and take advantage of the opportunities available to them. There is much for children to learn from a trip to this Museum and, perhaps most importantly, they will certainly enjoy it!" 

-Darren, Sammy, Clare and Julia, trainee teachers at Oxford Brookes University. 

Learning Beyond the Classroom: Oxford Brookes Education Students at the Pitt

During the week 5th-10th October 2015, the Pitt Rivers Museum extended an opportunity to four Oxford Brookes students to come and observe practices and activities within the Museum. Here we hear from those four students: Jack Harford, Katie Bragg, Becca Copas and Kat King.

Brookes Students with objects from Extreme Environments © Pitt Rivers Museum

"We are writing this blog post to share with you the activities and experiences we observed and participated in within the Museum this week. But first, we should probably share some information about ourselves. The four of us are students at Oxford Brookes University and are in the final year of a Primary Education course. The four of us attended this week at the Museum in order to observe and develop our understanding of the exciting and engaging learning opportunities that children (and adults) can experience outside their usual classroom environment. 

"Day 1: We were introduced to Becca McVean, the Primary Education Officer at the Museum.  We then attended an introductory lecture on Anthropology to give us little bit more insight and information about the Museum and the collections within.  Becca met us again to discuss initial perceptions of the Museum and how we as primary school teachers could use the Museum to enhance children's learning.

Pitt Rivers Museum © Kat King

"Day 2: We had the opportunity to observe Becca in action with a class of Year 6 pupils who had come to visit the Museum. The children were looking at Extreme Environments. Becca began by introducing the children to four very extreme environments and encouraging them to consider how the animals and humans who lived in this area had adapted to their environment. The children then had an opportunity to handle objects and decide which environment they thought the object came from. It was great to see children using their senses, exploring the objects, discussing with one another and forming and justifying their ideas. The children were then given a trail to go on around the Museum to find different objects from each environment. Whilst the children were fascinated by the objects around them, the trail kept them focussed and on task. The group were engaged and given an opportunity that they perhaps may not have received in the classroom.

 Activities for Extreme Environments © Kat King

"Day 3: We were introduced to Chris Jarvis, the Primary School Education Officer at the Museum of Natural History. To begin with we explored the Museums independently to consider the ways in which schools can interlink the learning between the two Museums.  We then regrouped to discuss the similarities and differences between the Museums and how we can teach children collaboratively using the resources and artefacts throughout them. 

"Day 4: Our final day. We observed an Ancient Egyptian trail with a class of Year 3 pupils. Children were made detectives and it was their job to find Egyptian artefacts focussing on different characteristics of Egyptian culture. The children also had the chance to handle various artefacts and explore the Museum independently to identify other artefacts from Ancient Egypt not previously shown. 

The Egyptian Mummy © Katie Bragg

"Our week at the Pitt Rivers Museum has demonstrated to us the importance of allowing children to handle objects and artefacts to support their learning outside the classroom. It is also important to consider the layout of various museums as some museums are presented in different ways which allows visitors to see the progression through time. We have thoroughly enjoyed our time at the Pitt Rivers Museum and have gained a new perspective of learning beyond the classroom environment."

Pitt Rivers welcomes Artist Teacher Scheme from Brookes, August 2015

Hello, my name is Katherine Rose and I am the new Secondary and FE Education Officer at the Pitt Rivers Museum. I am excited to be joining the team here and to contribute my first post to the Pitt Rivers Education blog.

In August we were delighted to welcome Rachel Payne and eleven teachers in the new cohort of the Brookes' Artist Teacher Scheme to the Pitt Rivers Museum. We had two days of workshops and creative work inspired by the museum.

Day One was led by artist Miranda Cresswell, who is currently the artist in residence for EngLaID British Archaeology project. She asked us to think about landscapes we loved or knew well, and make drawings of textures in museum objects that reminded us of those landscapes. The Annexe then became a studio as we developed these initial sketches into art works using collage, paint, pastel and chalk. 

On Day Two Adrian (Joint Museums Art Education Officer) and Andy and I led discussion and activities focusing on interpretation. We considered how we interpret art and museum artefacts, and ways of doing this. We also looked at how visiting artists had created installations in the Pitt Rivers Museum as a way of ‘interpreting’ or ‘intervening’ in the collection. There was a creative ‘chinese whispers’ activity that involved writing tweets, drawing and making models of different objects. We finished by doing in-depth explorations of three objects in the Pitt Rivers collection to think about how we build up layers of meaning based on our personal response and associations, what the object looks like and is made of and what we can find out from similar artefacts. We also thought about the different contexts we can understand the object in. Each group made a performance based upon their object to finish the day.

Performance inspired by the Haida Totem Pole (1901.39.1) © Pitt Rivers Museum 

We wish the group all the best for what promises to be an interesting and creative year ahead as they develop their practice and link this back to their work as art teachers and educators.