Education at MHS – Inside HSM Oxford

Stories Etched on Objects

Robyn Haggard — Fri, 05 Jan 2018 14:21:38 +0000

Flo, a member of Young Producers, discusses how we can discover the history of objects by examining their surface. ** From Time-Turners in Harry Potter to Alethiometers in His Dark Materials, clever instruments with complex markings and shiny surfaces are great centre-pieces to stories of adventure and intrigue. I like to think that JK Rowling and Philip Pullman ... [Read more...]

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Astrolabes, iPhones and Fakery

Robyn Haggard — Tue, 28 Nov 2017 14:49:41 +0000

Tom, from the Museum’s Young Producers group, talks about astrolabes and the craftsman Abd al A’imma. ** It is easy to forget the past. This is perhaps most true of technology. We have no reason to think about it, but every day we do something utterly radical. We reach for a smartphone, and we’ve harnessed ... [Read more...]

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Fun and Games with Medieval Medicine

Robyn Haggard — Thu, 21 Sep 2017 15:26:15 +0000

What do you get if you mix quince, vinegar, water and honey? According to the medieval pharmacist al-Kuhin al-‘Attar, who worked in Cairo, Egypt, during the 13th century, an excellent cure for your flatulence!** This, along with mixtures containing ingredients such as asses’ milk to Dragon’s Blood, is just one of the many weird and ... [Read more...]

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The Next Generation of Curious Curators

Robyn Haggard — Tue, 08 Aug 2017 11:25:36 +0000

Helen Pooley is the Primary Education Officer at the Museum of the History of Science. In this guest post she discusses the exciting new cross-museums project Curious Curators. ** The Museum of the History of Science might seem an obvious place for primary school classes to find out more about topics linked to history and ... [Read more...]

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MHS Inspires Innovative Merchandising

Robyn Haggard — Fri, 07 Jul 2017 10:52:56 +0000

Chris Parkin (Education Officer) talks about the Museum’s new shop project with Banbury College of Art and Design (Oxford Brookes), and the Royal College of Art (RCA). ** Many of our visitors will have noticed the exciting new development that is the MHS shop ingeniously located beneath the old staircase. The shop has begun to ... [Read more...]

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Demonstrating history: an undergraduate class visit to MHS

Robyn Haggard — Mon, 08 Feb 2016 14:16:29 +0000

Guest post by Dr Michael Bycroft, whose University of Warwick undergraduate history class visited the Museum for an afternoon of talks and hands-on experience with instruments of the 17th and 18th centuries. ** As every historian of 18th-century experimental philosophy knows, lectures and instruments are an excellent couple. It’s all very well to hold forth ... [Read more...]

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An Orrery for an Arts Award

Robyn Haggard — Thu, 21 Jan 2016 10:18:05 +0000

Silver Arts Award at the Museum of the History of Science In this guest post Miranda Millward, Oxford University Museums Arts Coordinator, talks about a recent Silver Arts Award. ** In 2014 Hovnan Eayrs approached the Museum of the History of Science to ask if he could work towards his Silver Arts Award. Hovnan planned ... [Read more...]

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A day in the life…

Scott Billings — Fri, 07 Aug 2015 09:42:07 +0000

We may be a small museum, but we get up to lots of different things… If you’ve ever wondered what happens here in a typical day, then take a look at this short film. Thanks to Tom Wilkinson and Tom Fuller in the University of Oxford Public Affairs Directorate for putting this together.

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The Art Club

Scott Billings — Thu, 18 Dec 2014 16:23:33 +0000

A few weeks ago a large group of schoolchildren began asking some probing questions: ‘What do you do in the Museum?’, ‘Did you always want to work in a museum?’, ‘Do you need to be a scientist to work here?’ and, perhaps most urgent of all, ‘How far can you see through this telescope?’. ... [Read more...]

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Illuminating objects

Scott Billings — Fri, 28 Nov 2014 12:33:28 +0000

By Hannah Eastwood Last Friday evening saw many of Oxford’s cultural venues, including the University museums, hosting late-night events to celebrate the city’s annual Christmas Light Festival. One of the standout contributions to the evening was work completed by local primary school children along with the museums’ six HLF Skills for the Future trainees. The aim of ... [Read more...]

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