Monthly Archives: March 2015

National Science and Engineering Week

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The Thames Valley Branch of the British Science Association and run Reading Science Week each year (part of National Science and Engineering Week). They usually have a number of student volunteers to help out at events – at the end of the week they can usually write something for the volunteers detailing what they have done to be used in their CVs, and they also support the RED award, and can complete forms for RED award students. This year Reading Science Week is 13-22 March and they have a range of events that volunteers can get involved with.

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Call for Volunteers
Would you like to gain some experience in science communication and event management? Fancy a public engagement reference for your CV? If so, volunteer with the British Science Association at Reading Science Week 2015! They are especially looking for volunteers to:
• Post and hand out flyers advertising our events
• Help out at our Stargazing event for kids (and adults!) on the evenings of 13th and 14th March at the University of Reading London Road Campus
• Help out at the Science Busking event from approximately 10-2 on 14th March on Broad St across from M&S – public science demonstrations and Science Week awareness

Full briefings will be given and training where appropriate. The program is available at http://www.scienceinreading.org/reading-science-week/
If you’re interested please contact scienceinreading@gmail.com

Survey of student experiences of fieldwork

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Calling all 2nd and 3rd Year Undergraduates, and MA students! Do you feel like you made a difference in your summer fieldwork last year? Do you feel like you are a visible digger? The University of Manchester are undertaking a survey to find out the answers to these questions and more by examining UK student perceptions and experiences of archaeological fieldwork, and they need your help!

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Please follow this link https://selectsurveys.humanities.manchester.ac.uk/TakeSurvey.aspx?SurveyID=ll0Inol1 to answer a few short questions. This will take you less than 5 minutes to complete. The survey is totally anonymous so feel free to be as honest as you like. The survey will stay open until Monday 9th March 2015.

 
This survey is being conducted by a team of students and staff from the University of Manchester, and is funded by the University of Manchester Learning through Research fund. If you want to hear more about what they find, their results will be presented at the CIfA conference and in a short publication which they hope to submit to the CIfA’s The Archaeologist Magazine. They will also be blogging about their project and presenting some of the findings on the project website https://visiblediggersmcr.wordpress.com/ so please do log on to find out more!

The Goals of this Project:

‘This project is led by students Matt Hitchcock, Stephanie McCulloch and Liya Walsh, along with lecturer Dr. Hannah Cobb, from the University of Manchester. We aim to capture the views of UK archaeology students surrounding their experiences of fieldwork. We want to find out whether students feel like they are valued in the field or whether they just feel like a ‘number’ or a ‘cog in the machine’. While a certain amount of direction is necessary, we aim to ascertain whether student are merely told about the theoretical direction of the excavation as it progresses, or whether they are given the theoretical tools necessary to make and contribute their own interpretations. This feedback will be used to highlight some of the current issues within archaeological pedagogy and offer some potential solutions.’