Ancient Technology session plan

• A 2 hour session for one class of KS1/2
• We request an adult child ratio of 1 to 7
• Supports QCA History unit 6A – ‘Romans’ and unit 18 ‘what was it like to live here in the past’. Also Art units 1b – ‘investigating materials’ and unit 2c – ‘can buildings speak?’

Organisation
During the session you will need to divide the class into smaller groups for looking around the museum and for led activities. The Interpreter demonstrator will oversee the session, with adult helpers stewarding groups in their activities.

Objectives

• To gain an over view of the history of Rockbourne Roman villa and how it fitted into the Roman history of Britain
• To gain an insight into everyday Roman life
• With a practical emphasis, to experience some of the ancient technologies used at the villa
• To draw comparisons between Roman and contemporary life and living environment.

Outline

Introduction
Welcome to the villa. Health and Safety intro. Outline of session events. Establish background to the evolution of the villa.

Activities
This session is a mixture of discussion and hands on.

Tour
The first part of the visit is a look around the indoors part of the museum, getting an over view of life on the site and in Roman England.

The class will be split into smaller groups and the Interpreter will lead the groups around, getting the children to think about and look closer at the exhibition. The whole class then regroups and the tour continues outside in the same manner, looking at the site including the hypocaust, mosaics and bath house.

Break

Hands on
Again the class is broken into smaller groups. The Interpreter will then introduce the various activities in front of the whole class, before explaining how long will be spent on each and how the rotation will work.

• Weaving a hurdle
  Using a scaled down model made of willow, groups will be asked to work in 2’s to weave their own hurdle panel. Discussion on the many uses of panels accompanies the activity. Goggles provided.
• Full scale weaving
  Following on from the scaled down version, this full scale ‘continuous weave’ activity allows the group to have a go at building a hazel wall. Gloves and goggles provided.
• Granite mosaic
  Using a part of the Rockbourne mosaic design, groups are set the challenge of building a ‘dry’ mosaic within a short amount of time. How time consuming is it? Why are square tesserae better than rough stones?
• Observational drawing
  Clipboard, paper and charcoal pencils provided. Use the charcoal for shading. Close observation of in/outdoor Roman artefacts.

Conclusion
Class comes back together to discuss what they have learnt. Opportunity for questions and comments on Roman life in Rockbourne.

We would be very grateful if you could complete and return the evaluation form you are given at your earliest convenience.