The last couple of weeks have been very interesting in terms of making contacts.
As you may have gathered, I am extremely keen on educating the masses, especially children and young people, on the value of Science. The main focus so far has been to reach my target audience through schools and children's parties.
It was through a jovial Christmas catch up with a friend that a whole new market was revealed to me...
The friend in question works for The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, and suggested that maybe local museums would be interested in my services. As soon as she mentioned this, I realised that I had been missing a trick. I had been thinking 'inside the box'. I had neglected to think about where my services could be appreciated in a wider sense.
What was I thinking?
Why had I not thought of this before?
Science links to pretty much everything (at least it does in my opinion, but then I may be a little biassed!).
Museums... Oh YES! What a brilliant idea!
I LOVE museums (see my previous post about museums in London). I love History. I love Archaeology. I have always been fascinated by the scientific processes involved in trying to interpret the past of our ancestors. Without an understanding of our past we cannot hope to move forward with any real purpose.
As part of my degree (at the University of Sheffield) I took every opportunity to expand my knowledge by using my 'free' credits to study units which would complement my course of study (Genetics), and would also offer me something a little different in order to broaden my areas of expertise. I chose to study Archaeological Science as part of this, despite the fact that I had (on paper) overlapping practical classes. The intention was that I would finish my 3 hour Genetics practical (2-5 p.m.) an hour early, in order to attend the 2 hour Archaeology practical (4-6 p.m.). Some weeks this worked. Other weeks I had to run into the Archaeology practical late, breathless, and apologising profusely! Thankfully, it all worked out OK in the end!
My interest in Archaeological Science has never waned.
As a result of that chat with an old friend (apologies to the friend concerned - I know you're younger than me! Perhaps 'long-standing' would have been a better turn of phrase?) I was inspired to contact The Collection, Lincoln, and have a meeting lined up for next week.
Here's hoping that this leads to lots of fun activities for kids to engage them with science, an interest in their past, and an appreciation of the value of museums and art galleries.
