What Machen primary school have been saying about their visit to the archaeological dig at Llanmaes

Chris Owen, 7 Gorffennaf 2008

"I really enjoyed looking at the pottery and teeth. I would like to know all the things the Iron Age Celts ate. How did they build the round houses? Did they play sport?"

"I liked doing the music because of the really good beats! I liked looking at the pigs teeth and the Roman coin. I would like to be an archaeologist because I love history, but I don't like working in wet weather!"

"I really liked looking at the pig bones and i learnt such a lot!"

"The ceremony we did was fab and I loved our music! I wanted to wear the mask home, but I wasn't sure about tearing up the cauldron we'd made!"

"Recording the music on the computer and changing it using the technology was really cool! The bones were cool as well!"

"I liked wearing the mask and playing the music."

"I really enjoyed today because it was fun. My favourite part was doing the music and going back in time!"

O'r diwedd

Gareth Bonello, 9 Mehefin 2008

O'r diwedd, dwi'n gallu canolbwyntio am hanner awr ar sgwennu'r blog yma, y blog cyntaf ers dros chwe mis. Y prif reswm fod gen i amser i sgwennu ydi fy mod wedi stopio gweithio dau ddiwrnod yr wythnos yn Oriel 1, felly rwy'n araf bach ddal i fyny gyda'r gwaith curadurol oedd yn dioddef oherwydd y ddau ddwrnod coll yna.

Ers y blog diwethaf, rydym wedi bod yn gweithio ar ardddangosfeydd Saethyddiaeth, Meddygol, Yr Urdd, Pop ac Eidalwyr yng Nghymru.

Dwi hefyd wedi bod yn ceisio cydlynu digwyddiadau Sain Ffagan ar gyfer 2009, pryd mai Cerddoriaeth fydd y thema, a gweithio ar y Ddresel Gymunedol nesaf, pryd bydd Clwb Bocsio Cwm Carn yn dangos eu metel.

Dwi hefyd wedi mynychu sawl cynhadledd, yn Stockholm, Llundain, Birmingham, Bolton a Llandrindod, wedi dysgu llawer, ac wedi rhannu profiadau am faterion casglu cyfoes. Mae drafft o Gynllun Casglu Cyfoes yr amgueddfa wedi ei anfon at fy nghyd-guraduron, a caiff ei drafod mewn cyfarfod ar ddiwedd y mis.

Dwi dal heb dderbynodi gwrthrych eto, sydd ychydig yn rhwystredig. Yn rhannol, da ni dal yn disgwyl canlyniad y cyfarfod uchod, ond dwi'n eithaf hyderus fy mod yn gwybod-ish beth i'w gasglu. Bydd rhaid i fi fod yn amyneddgar - wedi'r cyfan, bydd deunydd cyfoes dal o gwmpas mewn ychydig fisoedd...neu fydd yna?

Na'i drio sgwennu hwn yn fwy rheolaidd, ond, byddwch yn gwybod, os na welwch chi ddim, fydda i mor brysur yn casglu, fydd dim amser gen i. Hwyl wan.

Summer sights, Summer sounds

Gareth Bonello, 8 Mai 2008

celandine2

Firstly, apologies for the larger than usual gap between this posting and my previous blog; I have been very busy! Many aspects of the project are nearing completion and the presence of the woodland project at St Fagans is becoming more and more obvious. So here’s what’s been going on…

The path through the woodland has been dug and the panels will be with us in the next few weeks. I’m very excited about the panels as they have a lot of brilliant hands-on learning displays such as a wind-up arm that plays bird song and a load of models of footprints, feeding remains and droppings of woodland mammals! It looks like the path will be ready sometime in June and it promises to be an excellent addition to the museum.

The website too is near completion and will be live in a couple of weeks. I’m looking forward to watching the birds as they come and go, and am curious as to which species we’ll get visiting our feeders and nest boxes. The pond cam should be a delight too, and I can’t wait to have a go at filming newts!

This week has felt like the first week of summer with temperatures reaching 23 degrees Celsius. I took a group of visitors on a bird walk at 5:30am on Saturday to celebrate international dawn chorus day and it was a great success. As well as resident species we also saw migrants such as Blackcap, and the songs of Chiffchaff have been ringing around since late March. The woods are full of birdsong as the birds sing to mark their territories and attract a mate, and birds with beaks full of nesting material have become a common sight. There has also been a riot of colour in the woods over the past month with the blossoming of spring flowers such as primrose, lesser celandine, wood anemones, garlic mustard and bluebell. The trees too have begun to blossom and grow fresh green leaves and the canopy is getting thicker every day.

That’s it for now, but keep a look out for the website and the woodland path next month!

Explore the Sea Floor blog

Lara Murphy, 17 Ebrill 2008

Welcome to the Explore the Sea Floor blog!

Marine scientists here at the museum have been studying the sea bed around the UK (and in other parts of the world as well!) and you can now see why and how it is done and what we have found. If you would like to ask a question to a marine scientist why not post a message on the blog and we will try our best to answer them.

Have you ever wondered what a marine scientist does?

Have a go at the activities on the Explore the Sea Floor web pages or request a free copy of the CD-ROM to become a virtual marine scientist.

Here are a few photos of museum scientists at sea and working in the laboratory.


Being Critical

Dafydd James, 12 Ebrill 2008

Yesterday I shared a lot of my time between the Crit Room and the Usability Labs. 

In the Crit Room websites are volunteered in advance for analysis by MW2008 delegates, and then ripped apart by a panel of experts! It was interesting to see how the experts saw flaws from different angles - design, usability, and access were the main approaches.

In the Usability Labs websites are submitted for testing, with certain scenarios devised so that a randomly selected user (that has never used the website) has to navigate their way to a certain area, or find information. The presenters, users, and the audience then discuss problems. This is very helpful to see where the website is flawed - it's often difficult to see basic issues when you are so close to a project.

I also went to a workshop by Gail Durbin from the V&A Museum, who have clearly done a lot of work into developing and researching social networking sites. 

It was interesting to hear how they were inundated with comments on their Kylie Minogue exhibition website, and had to change the wording to refine the information and feedback they were collecting. But it's important to keep the comments online as long as people contribute within the rules set down by the institution.

We also had a challenge to develop two web 2.0 tasks - one verbal and one visual, which was difficult to feed back on due to the number of people in the session! We were also showed the V&A's fantastic World Beach Project, I look forward to doing further research on the website when I have some time.