June Members’ Meeting - Full STEAM ahead!
Our June Members' Meeting, on 16 June 2021 (13:00 – 15:00) via Zoom, will focus on the use of heritage science to engage with children of school age.
The meeting will bring together best practice and learning from across our membership and invites participants to take part in a discussion about how we could increase and maximise opportunities to support national curricula across the UK, as well as wider learning, with heritage science. REGISTER for the event on Eventbrite here.
Professor Pamela Burnard (University of Cambridge) will deliver a keynote lecture titled What if sciences were arts all along? New sites of attention and inseparability
She will be followed by three talks highlighting best practice in schools-focused engagement, drawn from the NHSF membership. We will be hearing from:
Natalie Brown and Emily Morris (The National Archives) - Creating educational resources for British Science Week: an opportunity to collaborate
Dr Alex Ball (Natural History Museum) - Design Consideration for 3D printed models for engagement with the visually impaired
Brian Wilkinson (The Engine Shed, Historic Environment Scotland) - Bridging the curriculum
The audience will be encouraged to discuss challenges and opportunities, and asked to think about how the collections and heritage sites we care for can provide exciting ways to engage with school-age children and their teachers, and support schools in delivering curriculum targets.
We want to use the event to explore the potential for developing a project that will help to demonstrate how heritage science connects to national curricula, what resources will reinforce these connections, and which partnerships could make the resources accessible to teachers and other education providers.
REGISTER for the event on Eventbrite here.
Please note this meeting is for staff and students of NHSF member organisations (including members of Icon).
If you are not an NHSF member but you would like to contribute to this meeting please email Caroline Peach, administrator@heritagescienceforum.org.uk. We are keen to involve people who are interested in this topic, though priority for spaces will go to NHSF members.
About our speakers
Pamela Burnard is Professor of Arts, Creativities and Educations at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge where she Chairs the Arts and Creativities Research Group and runs an online monthly seminar series called ‘Performing Research’. She has published widely with 20 books and over 100 articles which advance the theory of multiple creativities across education sectors including early years, primary, secondary, further and higher education, through to creative and cultural industries. She is co-editor of the journal Thinking Skills and Creativity. Current funded projects include ‘Choices, Chances and Transitions around Creative Further and Higher Education’; ‘Diversifying Compositional Creativity using AI’; ‘Sculpting New Creativities in Primary Education’; and a meta-analysis of the culminative impact of ‘Contemporary Urban Musics for Inclusion Networks’ (CUMIN). She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) and the Chartered College of Teaching, UK.
Natalie Brown is the Senior Conservation Manager – Engagement at The National Archives. In her role she leads on disseminating heritage science research and conservation practice happening within the organisation as well as developing and managing programmes of public, education and academic engagement. Prior to joining The National Archives, Natalie worked for the European Research Infrastructure for Heritage Science where she led the UK hub’s communication activities. Natalie trained as a paper conservator and heritage scientist, and is currently completing her PhD at the Institute for Sustainable Heritage, University College London.
Emily Morris is the Family and Young Person’s Programme Officer at The National Archives. Working in the Education and Outreach department, Emily designs and delivers learning activities and projects for families and young people. The programmes aim to engage non-traditional audiences with archive documents in creative and exciting ways. Recent examples of work include ‘From Outbreak to Archive’ – a young person’s online animation film project, engaging 15 young people with documents on disease and public health from the collection. For families in the Time Travel Club, Emily has been running online sensory storytelling for children under-3 with a professional storyteller.
Dr Alex Ball is Head of Imaging and Analysis at the Natural History Museum in London. He has used a wide variety of equipment for STEM events and currently manages a portable SEM loan scheme for schools as part of Hitachi High-Tech America’s STEM Educational Outreach Programme. A key and lasting motif has been to demonstrate the visual impact of high-performance imaging systems. However, the one group that are unable to appreciate these microscopical marvels are the visually impaired. With the discovery that SEMs can generate 3D models using photogrammetry, Alex secured funding from Zeiss and the EPSRC to fund research into how microscopical features can be modelled in 3D for science engagement with the visually impaired.
Brian Wilkinson is Activities Manager at The Engine Shed, Historic Environment Scotland’s Building Conservation Centre, where he leads the Activities Team. They are responsible for helping schools and their visitors find out about Scotland’s Traditional Buildings, Materials and Skills. Over the years Brian has carried out learning roles for a variety of heritage organisations including council museum services, National Museum Scotland, The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland, and The National Trust for Scotland. He has undertaken freelance work making educational resources and activities for heritage bodies such as Archaeology Scotland and Forestry Commission Scotland.