Using Museums: Roman Dig
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(narrator) The Arbeia Roman Fort
in South Shields
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offers school groups the chance
to be archaeologists for the day
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by digging up real Roman artefacts.
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It's one of a number of collections
with educational staff on site,
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who show what life was like
in Roman Britain
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by role play and re-enactment.
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..will ask each officer
for the report...
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It's like a leaf-shaped blade.
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(narrator) Prior to their visit
to the museum,
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local primary school teacher
Sue Pierce
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prepared a class by finding out
how the Romans lived
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and why they invaded
and then settled in Britain.
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..some people will do some pottery.
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Then after play we'll swap over,
so we all get a chance.
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The boys in particular enjoy
learning about the army
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and how the Roman soldiers lived.
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The girls do like to learn about
the soldiers and the battles.
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Also we like to try and relate it
to modern-day roads.
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We talk about the towns and cities
that we still have in England
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that were originated by the Romans.
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I prepared for the trip by doing
a pre-visit to the fort itself,
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by talking to the staff
and having a look around the site.
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We were sent a pack into school
about Arbeia
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and the kind of worksheets
the children could do
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either on the visit or afterwards.
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I had a look on the internet, looked
at suitable sites for information.
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The site I looked on was
the Tyne & Wear Museums site,
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which includes
the Arbeia Roman Fort site.
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Also the 24 HourMuseum site.
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(woman) The 24 Hour Museum
is a good place to go.
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It will tell you about
the museums in your region.
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We also have nine regional agencies
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who can offer advice and support,
can direct you to museums,
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who can then help you plan
the specifics of your visit.
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(woman) Arbeia's
part of Tyne & Wear Museums.
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We've got 11 museums and galleries,
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almost all of which are free,
which is a great help to schools.
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There are some charges. There's
a small charge for Time Quest,
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but it's a matter of pence
per pupil, so it's very small.
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The biggest costs for schools
are transport -
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getting people here - but we are
close to public transport.
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We encourage teachers
to come to Arbeia
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before their visit with the school
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to have a look around,
talk to the staff
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and plan what they're going to do
on the day.
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We send them a teacher's pack
with lots of information -
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activity sheets, ideas that
other schools have done before -
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so they can prepare
in the classroom.
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We can also go out into schools and
help prepare, if that's necessary.
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(Sue Pierce) The fort's
close to our school,
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but we have to fill in
a risk-assessment form.
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That involved travelling there
as well -
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the risks of getting on and off
the Metro, that kind of thing.
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The museum sends out advice leaflets
about things to look out for,
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which you should bear in mind when
doing a school's risk assessment.
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We do things called
hazard ID sheets,
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which is all the information you
need to write your risk assessment.
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(narrator) Time Quest
is a hands-on activity centre.
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Children dig for finds on
the reconstructed excavation site
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and discover what has been unearthed
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with the help of
a gallery interpreter.
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What part of the skull might they
look at to find out a person's age?
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(Susan) Time Quest is special.
It's the only place in the Northeast
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that you can do something
as experiential.
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You can be an archaeologist
and dig up real Roman objects.
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They're not replicas. Romans left
them on this site 2,000 years ago.
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It's something
you can't do anywhere else.
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You dig up your finds,
you can analyse and look at them,
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handle them, discuss them,
draw them.
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We use all sorts of
different activities.
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(woman)
They absolutely love digging,
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so we kind of focus on that mainly,
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and try and get them to balance out
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the practical stuff that they do
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and then we talk to them
about what they find.
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So they get the practical experience
and learn from what we tell them.
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I've enjoyed the digging cos you get
to actually be an archaeologist
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and find lots of different things.
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(narrator) Time Quest
works for any age group.
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Sessions can be adapted for older
children at key stage 3 and 4.
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Afterwards, the class get a chance
to tour the fort
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and meet archaeologists who are
on hand to answer any questions.
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Just by looking at the stratigraphy.
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Can anybody hazard a guess
to say what this is down here?
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(Susan) We work with
local secondary schools,
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taking students
on work-experience placements,
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both with the education staff
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who help out in Time Quest and help
the younger children understand,
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but also we're able to offer some
placements for archaeologists,
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so they can actually go and dig.
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I think they can get a great deal of
hands-on archaeological experience,
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which is quite a rare thing,
to get that.
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It's become less and less these days
because of the way digs are funded.
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So we offer a good opportunity for
students, trainees and volunteers
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to take part in the excavations
and get some much-needed experience.
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Like a break from university
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or they're going to follow it
in employment, that sort of line.
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You can't see the road now. Under
that we've got all these drains...
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(Susan) Arbeia is
not just about the Romans.
0100 10:06:06:15 10:06:10:10
It has a cross-curricular approach,
so even if it is just a Roman visit,
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you're looking at geography
and science, as well as history.
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We also run weeks of workshops
where you can do literacy activities
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that involve drama and role play,
storytelling, reading and writing.
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We do art workshops where you make
weird and wonderful Roman things,
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and geography and science things -
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looking at how materials
are preserved underground
0107 10:06:31:13 10:06:33:08
in archaeology.
0108 10:06:35:21 10:06:40:13
I wrote "Stephanie" in Roman
and "Stephanie" in English.
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"My name is Stephanie.
My name is Stephanie."
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So... It's really interesting
as well.
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I'm enjoying this because you
get to look at things from close up
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instead of just from our view.
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(narrator) A small museum gallery
was built on site
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where children can find out about
a Roman soldier's life,
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death and burial.
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This is a fantastic resource for us.
It's right on the doorstep.
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It gives the children a chance
to have hands-on experience
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of real Roman artefacts.
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Seeing a real Roman site,
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it's everything we talk about
in the classroom.
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We look in books,
video, on the internet,
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but this brings it all to life.
It's fantastic.
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This is what they would wear
underneath.
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What I like about the Romans
is how they battle
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and what they use to practise with.
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They'll have a spear
and they'll have their other sword
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so they can get the spear there
and their sword there
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and, like, hit with that spear
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and hit them with the sword
at the same time.
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(narrator) Questions and worksheets
are provided for the pupils.
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This is an education pack
we send out for a Roman visit.
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It covers the topics they'll be
doing while they're visiting.
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So, for example, it'll give them
a description about the characters,
0134 10:08:12:00 10:08:15:08
what they'll be expected to do,
the costumes, that sort of thing.
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We send them out
once the teachers have decided
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which sort of activity
they want to do while they're here.
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(Sue Pierce) We didn't feel
it was right for year 3 children
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to take out clipboards,
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so we just let the children look at
the artefacts and talk about them.
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We will use some of them
as follow-ups in the classroom.
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But next year we may make some
of the worksheets into A5 booklets,
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so that the children could carry
them around, look at the artefacts,
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answer questions, draw pictures
while they're at the museum.
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(Sue Wilkinson)
Teachers in the Northeast
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can go onto a secondment programme
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managed by the Northeast Museums,
Libraries and Archives Council.
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That's part of a national programme
which has funding from government
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which MLA manages
through its regional agencies,
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which means that teachers all over
the country can go on placements
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to help them develop
their knowledge and skills
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about museums and museum objects
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and to plan effective teaching and
learning opportunities for students.
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(man) Basically,
the way the Romans ate
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was not like us -
we sit at a table to eat our food.
0155 10:09:20:13 10:09:24:06
They'd all lie
on these huge seats with cushions.
0156 10:09:24:06 10:09:28:00
I organise and run
the Roman role play
0157 10:09:28:00 10:09:32:06
and take all the bookings,
et cetera.
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It's a chance for them,
getting into character.
0159 10:09:35:22 10:09:39:21
Rather than learning through
a textbook or listening to someone,
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it's actually through doing it
and working with objects.
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They're having fun,
but they're also learning.
0162 10:09:46:09 10:09:48:11
That's the great thing about it.
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"We are ready for inspection."
0164 10:09:50:08 10:09:54:05
(Adnan) The best thing is that
they get to work with objects.
0165 10:09:54:05 10:09:57:20
In the role play we try and put in
as many objects as possible
0166 10:09:57:20 10:10:00:07
so they can handle them and, erm...
0167 10:10:00:07 10:10:02:22
What quite often happens
is the kids,
0168 10:10:02:22 10:10:05:15
when I take a break they start
playing with the objects
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and start getting into the roles
without me.
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Everything's been related to what
we're doing in the classroom
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because it's all about the Romans.
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We've been learning what kind of
people did what kind of jobs.
0173 10:10:18:13 10:10:20:22
You get to learn more
by doing role play
0174 10:10:20:22 10:10:25:22
so you can actually learn
what sort of things the Romans did.
0175 10:10:28:06 10:10:31:13
(narrator) The museum also plays
host to a re-enactment society
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which holds events
during the summer.
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Members go out to schools with props
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and loan-boxes
full of Roman artefacts.
0179 10:10:38:15 10:10:40:24
..very different
to what they used to be like.
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It's quite blunt
because the original was blunt.
0181 10:10:43:12 10:10:47:17
We're a group of enthusiasts who
re-create what life was like here
0182 10:10:47:17 10:10:51:04
in the 200s to the 300 time period.
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In my case I've mainly
worked with key stage 2 -
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about seven, eight,
nine-year-old children.
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We just take things in -
not just military,
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it's also the civilian aspects
and everything.
0187 10:11:03:04 10:11:06:19
We also take books in. We also
ask them what they've been doing
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and we go through...
We actually let them touch toys,
0189 10:11:11:06 10:11:15:02
religious things, ornaments,
0190 10:11:15:02 10:11:17:24
whatever they've been
learning about.
0191 10:11:17:24 10:11:20:17
We'll talk,
people will let them try things on.
0192 10:11:20:17 10:11:23:23
We let them try the helmets on.
If they want to feel what it's like
0193 10:11:23:23 10:11:29:04
to have the sword and leatherwork
on, we'll give them a go.
0194 10:11:29:04 10:11:32:12
(narrator) The class follows up
their visit to Arbeia
0195 10:11:32:12 10:11:34:20
with history, art and cookery.
0196 10:11:35:19 10:11:38:24
(Sue Pierce) We try to make
the topic relevant to the children.
0197 10:11:38:24 10:11:42:17
They like talking about things like
what the Romans ate
0198 10:11:42:17 10:11:45:17
and whether we still eat
the kinds of things they did.
0199 10:11:45:17 10:11:50:08
We're going to make some bowls -
a bit like this one here.
0200 10:11:50:08 10:11:53:09
Quite a shallow bowl
that they might have eaten from.
0201 10:11:53:09 10:11:55:06
You need to wet your hands, Sam.
0202 10:11:55:06 10:11:57:22
We're going to do quite a few
follow-up activities.
0203 10:11:57:22 10:12:01:21
One of them is some of the children
will do some mosaic pictures
0204 10:12:01:21 10:12:05:21
using outlines of Roman pictures
that we've found in books.
0205 10:12:06:20 10:12:10:00
Some of the children
are going to make Roman scrolls.
0206 10:12:10:00 10:12:14:06
This comes under the DT
and art and craft activities.
0207 10:12:14:06 10:12:17:06
Another group of children
will make some Roman cakes
0208 10:12:17:06 10:12:21:15
from a recipe that
again we found in some topic books.
0209 10:12:21:15 10:12:23:22
(narrator) Out of all
the museum had to offer,
0210 10:12:23:22 10:12:25:17
what was the most memorable?
0211 10:12:25:17 10:12:30:12
I possibly enjoyed
the digging the best,
0212 10:12:30:12 10:12:33:18
cos I like getting dirty
0213 10:12:33:18 10:12:36:06
and scruffy as well.
0214 10:12:36:06 10:12:39:00
The digging,
cos I found a skull
0215 10:12:39:00 10:12:42:00
and I was really happy
that I found it with my friend.
0216 10:12:42:00 10:12:45:05
I liked going to the museum,
0217 10:12:45:05 10:12:48:16
because I liked seeing
the dead woman there.
0218 10:12:48:16 10:12:51:04
The Arbeia Roman Fort showed
0219 10:12:51:04 10:12:55:00
that you can have a variety of
learning experiences for children.
0220 10:12:55:00 10:12:58:12
Given that all children
learn in very different ways,
0221 10:12:58:12 10:13:02:11
this was something
that was clearly really important
0222 10:13:02:11 10:13:06:01
to ensuring that all those children
didn't just have a good time there,
0223 10:13:06:01 10:13:09:06
but all of them got something
out of that experience
0224 10:13:09:06 10:13:12:05
that would support their learning
back in school.
0225 10:13:12:05 10:13:16:03
Our own research in the Renaissance
programme has borne that out.
0226 10:13:16:03 10:13:20:10
The big survey we did two years ago
with nearly 1,000 teachers
0227 10:13:20:10 10:13:22:07
showed that there
were clear links
0228 10:13:22:07 10:13:24:24
between creativity,
inspiration and enjoyment
0229 10:13:24:24 10:13:27:20
and the acquisition of
knowledge and understanding.
0230 10:13:55:01 10:13:57:14
Visiontext Subtitles: Sarah Emery
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