Student Name:

Andrew

Programme of Study:

Museum Studies (MA) 2016-2017 Academic Year

Career/ Sector Interests:

My goal is to build a career within a museum learning team, I am particularly interested in the usefulness of learning outside the classroom in a museum setting and particularly the benefits of object based learning for children. My aim is to work in a role where not only do I deliver these workshops but I also create and implement new ones as part of the museum’s learning offerings.

Placement Venue:

South Shields Museum & Art Gallery and Arbeia Roman Fort

Placement Duration (30 or 12 days):

30 days (although I enjoyed it so much I ended up doing 35!) June - July 2017

Career/ Sector Interests:

My goal is to build a career within a museum learning team, I am particularly interested in the usefulness of learning outside the classroom in a museum setting and particularly the benefits of object based learning for children. My aim is to work in a role where not only do I deliver these workshops but I also create and implement new ones as part of the museum’s learning offerings.

What type of activities did you undertake whilst you were on placement?

During my placement I assisted, and later led, workshops at both South Shields Museum and Arbeia Roman Fort. These included “Time Quest”, a simulated archaeological dig in which children would ‘excavate’ and handle real Roman objects and “Those Crafty Romans” part of which was another object handling session with real Roman examples of craft, including a (roughly) 1,800 year old glass vase. I also led guided tours of the reconstructions at Arbeia. At South Shields Museum a lot of my work was with groups on the SEND register, with ages varying between under 5 and adults, I would help lead them through a variety of creative workshops all based on the museum’s collections.

When I wasn’t leading workshops, I was helping to plan them, either researching potential new activities or themes or preparing materials to be used by groups the following day. I also helped with various office/administration duties such as replying to booking enquiries, taking phone calls from schools and sending confirmation emails. 

What were you placement highlights?

One of the major highlights was being able to plan, deliver and evaluate a workshop that I worked on completely solo. The workshop in question was part of the “Little Lions” offering, a workshop for under 5s with learning difficulties. I was given a brief of ‘come up with something educational and fun’ so I created a workshop all around LEGO. Using the LEGO exhibition ‘Little Landmarks’ the children learned about the various shapes and sizes that a landmark could be and they went on to design a landmark of their own using a variety of materials. To be able to run my own workshop as part of the Museum’s learning programme was an absolutely priceless opportunity.

Another highlight was being given the opportunity to deliver all of the workshops at Arbeia independently on a busy school day. I delivered six workshops to three different schools over the course of one day which gave me a real feel of what it is like to work as an Assistant Learning Officer for TWAM.