Category Archives: Natural Science

The End of the Natural Science Volunteers Year One!

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Last Thursday saw the end of our Natural Science Volunteer project for this year. As it was the first year of the project we were a little apprehensive as to how it would work out! However, thanks to our three brilliant volunteers the project has been productive, enjoyable and vastly improved our knowledge of the mammal collection held at the collections centre. For loads for amazing images of some of the specimens we worked on this summer take a look at Lukas’ Flickr stream. 

It was also wonderful to have an opportunity to talk to so many of our visitors about natural science; one volunteer, Laura, described it as, “Exhausting but really good! I enjoyed showing off our work and telling people what we’ve been doing”. Even if they’re not always on display, collections still have the power to educate and enthral, so it was lovely to give our Natural History specimens some moments to shine!

Check out the stats below for this summer’s work. Next year we turn our attention to the Entomology collection (or bugs to you and me!) though we may return to the mammals to finish off the last few boxes. Watch this space!

Natural Science Volunteers in Numbers!

217 volunteer hours given

500 people engaged on open days at Thinktank and MCC

26,311 accounts reached on the Twitter take over day

272 objects added or amended on the collections database

Over 300 objects assessed, recorded and condition checked!

 

Natural Science Volunteers Go Public!

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So far our Natural Science Volunteers have been working away deep in the stores of the Museum Collections Centre (MCC), literally without being able to see the light of day! But last week we let them loose on the public!

Laura, Lukas, Sarah and I took part in two days in which we encouraged visitors at Thinktank and MCC to engage with natural science. We firstly ran a ‘Meet the Volunteer Day’ at Thinktank, speaking to around 250 visitors and showing them natural science specimens from Thinktank’s handling collections. The volunteers also brought in a few specimens from their own collections including a very popular baby mammoth tooth!

Tree of Life 2

The carnivor end of our Tree of Life

 

My favourite part of our set up was a ‘hands-on’ Tree of Life, a greatly simplified version of this one from Darwin 200. This table (right) allowed us not only to show visitors specimens, but also to demonstrate how groups of animals are connected to each other. The fact they could touch all of the objects made it even more of a winner!

Overall the day went really smoothly, though I don’t think the volunteers expected so many people or appreciated how often they would have to repeat themselves!

 

Our second outing came last Sunday at the MCC Open Day to which a whopping 550 came! I think we probably talked to around 200 people up in the Natural Science Store of the Centre. It’s fairly tucked away so I was impressed that, that many people found us! Here it was great to show people specimens that are very rarely viewed and it gave the volunteers the opportunity to talk about their work in the place they actually do it!

If you missed us at these events there is one finally opportunity to talk to us. We are taking over the BMAG twitter feed on the 30th of August 10.00am- 4.00pm to talk about the project and tell tales from the stores! Do join us and tweet away!

Natural Science Volunteer Update

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Our Natural Science Volunteer project is well underway now. Laura, Lukas and Sarah have been hard at work down at the Museum Collections Centre and, after a few technical difficulties, are beginning to work their way through the mammal specimens held on open shelves.

So what exactly are they doing? Well the process is fairly straightforward, at least it is until an unknown object appears! The team are working their way along the shelves looking at each object in turn. Firstly they check to see if it has an acquisition number. If it does the record is found, both in the hand written documents and computer records, and updated with an accurate condition report. The object is also photographed and measured, really important for the future when exhibitions will be planned using this information.

If there is no number or computer record, a new one must be created and then all possible information is recorded about the object. Already there have been several objects that have apparently not officially existed until now! Take a look at the selection of images below showing their work.

There are a number of opportunities for you to talk to our Natural Science Volunteers coming up soon! Firstly at Thinktank at a Meet the Volunteer Event on the 15th of August. Then at the Museum Collections Center Open Day on the 19th of August and finally they will be taking over the @BM_AG Twitter feed on the 30th of August. Get involved!

Natural Science Volunteers

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So here I am finally writing about a new project!

Today sees the start of our Natural Science Volunteers project that will run every summer for the next three years. Our aim is to improve the care of the Natural Science Collection, stored in the Museum Collections Centre (MCC) here in Birmingham. There are literally thousands of objects in this collection, including birds, mammals, insects, botany and reptiles. Information about many of the objects can be found on the Natural World website. This summer we will be focusing on the mammals and birds with our three brave volunteers!

Natural Science Volunteers

Sarah, Laura and Lukas our fearless Natural Science Volunteers

Between them they have lots of skills and experience that make them perfect for the project. Lukas even has a Scientific Illustration Blog that is well worth a look as is Laura’s ‘A Brummies Guide to Birmingham’ (though less ‘on topic’!).

So what will our volunteers be doing? Well their main task is to improve the documentation of the animal specimens, which means taking a look at them and making sure all the information we have about them is correct. With such a massive collection, this is not an easy task! They will also be taking lots of photographs and checking that all the animals are in the right place, ready for a time when they may go back out on display. We are really excited about the project and the improvements it will make to the collection. As always all their work will be documented here so watch this space!

 

Looking at the Records

Documentation Coordinator Katie showing the volunteers the paper records (VERY hard to read!)