As part of British Science Week, the Roman Baths organised a
number of events to allow visitors to find out about the science behind some of
our museum objects, for which I was project manager. The week started with Science
Busking which consisted of three tables explaining the science behind pottery,
such as how the pot was fired; metals, what metals the Romans made and worked and
bone, showing how you can sex and age a skeleton. These tables mainly were
visited by adults however some children also visited the tables. The arch model
was also set up and this attracted the attention with visitors of all ages.
Over the three hour period this event ran it attracted 547 visitors. The BRSLI
Science Cadets also had a variety of geology based activities in the education
room to find out about Bath’s hot spring.
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| Our successful Science Busking event |
Throughout the week hands-on tables ran next to Great Bath
to allow visitors to handle some of the museum objects. These ranged from human
remains, coins, mosaics and Roman architecture. A volunteer or placement
student compiled the information and stood with their table to answer any
questions the visitors may have had. The tables all attracted interest from visitors
with numbers ranging from 90 to 220 visitors wanting to find out more. The most
popular day was Thursday, with over 200 people wanting to find out about
mosaics and to look and touch a real skeleton.
The final two events were Bath Taps in Science organised by
the University of Bath. The penultimate event was held at the University and
was to encourage children to be interested in science, the Roman Baths took the
table top arch and some x-rays and objects. The children enjoyed building the
arch and couldn’t quite understand how it stood up without anything supporting
it.
The final event was held at Royal Victoria Park, where the Roman Baths set
up the aqueduct and arch model. Both proved extremely popular with 370 people
engaging either on one or both of the activities.
Overall, Science Week proved a success with all the events
catering to all age groups and engaging both children and families.
Katharine Foxton
Bradford University Placement Student
