Pirate Training Day

Yargh! Shiver me timbers and hoist the main sail! Light the cannons and climb the rigging! I’ll be a monkey’s uncle if Eureka! didn't hold a plank walking shivaree of a corporate event.

As much as I’d like to, I’m not going to write this whole post in pirate style. I will however write about how I spent most of my day as a pirate at the beginning of November. And believe me, I enjoyed it very much.

On 1 November, Eureka! opened its doors to staff members from a local primary school, coming to take part in one of our fun-filled corporate team building days. This was the first corporate event I had done at Eureka!, and we were trying out a new piratical, shipwreck board game-style activity that I had been working on with our Business Development Manager. It was a completely new game, and I was a little bit nervous.

Team building here starts with a few ice-breakers, and it’s ‘getting to know you’ for everyone on the course and us Enablers who are helping out for the day. This group was big enough we could split them into two groups. One group, with Enabler Jennie, got to put their engineering heads on and try their hands a spot of car building. The second group came with me as I transformed myself into my pirating alter-ego, ‘The Captain’, complete with foam cutlass. Yargh!

As ‘The Captain’ I quickly put my ‘new recruits’ through an intense spot of pirate training to sort out the scurvy and the sea sick before the terrors of the seven seas! I can happily report that all new recruits successfully graduated the training camp and earned themselves a place aboard my ship, the ‘Slippery Eel’.

It was then time to put the new game to the test. The Slippery Eel had been hit and was sinking. With only one life raft, the ‘crew’ had to decide which items to rescue from the sinking ship and take with them to a desert island where they would have to survive until rescue. Each item had pros and cons, an amount of space it would take up in the life raft, and a certain point value that only I knew. When each team had decided what they would be taking with them, I gave them the point sheet, and whoever had the most points would win the game. Sounds complicated I know, but believe me its not, and it was incredibly fun, and quite a success. I then put their teamwork skills to the test by getting them to build a catapult to protect themselves whilst on the ‘desert island’.

Exploring the galleries on a corporate event!

After a quick swap round of groups and repeating the pirate games, the teams then took to exploring the galleries and answering questions about them in the ‘Gallery Challenge’.
For my first corporate event, I was really happy that the whole day was, in my opinion, a great success.

Ben Guilfoyle is an Outreach Enabler at Eureka! The National Children’s Museum

For more information about corporate events and teambuilding at Eureka! please visit the Corporate Events section of our website.

From start to finish on the new Nursery play area

Part of my role here at Eureka! as the Exhibition Manager is to manage projects around the museum. Over the past few months I have been working on the new outdoor play area for the Eureka! Nursery. It replaces the old play area in front of the 1855 Building, on the grass of the Eureka! Park.

While my role calls for me to design exhibits inside the gallery, for this project, we have been fortunate enough to be able to employ the skills of a landscape designer, who was able to help bring our concept for the Nursery play area, as a natural play area to life.

As my background is in design, I was able to work closely with the designer to ensure we got a design that fulfilled all of our requirements. In order to get to the stage of issuing a brief, there were several stages we needed to go through first of all!

Before we were even able to hire our landscape designer, we had to apply for planning permission. This is because the proposed site was adjacent to our 1855 grade three listed building. As project manager, I was responsible for submitting this application. It can take several months for a decision to be reached, but thankfully our application was successful and we were able to proceed.

Once our application had been granted  I held internal meetings with the rest of the Eureka! team which included our Director of Play and Learning, and the Nursery Manager and communicated the project requirements to the designer. Before writing a brief for what we wanted to see in the play area, I went on research trips to visit other successful nursery play areas .

The brief had to include examples, to give the designer guidance on what we wanted to see. I produced some design sheets based on my findings, and other research I had done. It was also important that the brief recognised the practical considerations, such as fencing, entrance and exit gates to the play area and making sure it was sizeable enough to hold an entire group from the Nursery.

Based on our content, we gave a brief to the designer, who was then able to present several design concepts to us. We chose a final design picking bits that we liked from each design, which has resulted in the creation of a natural play area that we set out to achieve. The new play area will is very natural, using timber, sand and stone, in all sorts of colours, sizes and textures. A unique mosaic water feature encourages interaction, with children able to affect the water flow. A mini nature trail runs along one edge of the site, and come the Spring will be filled with different wild flowers, herbs and interesting shrubs like bamboo, and will encourage children to use all of their senses to explore their new outdoor habitat.

The design plan submitted for the Nursery play area

My favourite feature is the large, permanent timber story chair, which will be used for story time outside. I really like the idea of the new area having different uses, whether it is for play, exploration or story time.

Our designer then worked the concept drawings up into detailed plans, and, delivered them to a firm of contractors to start work on the play area. While I wasn’t laying sod or installing the tunnel, as project manager part of my job was to co ordinate deliveries and make sure things turned up on time! One of my main responsibilities was also to make sure that the site remained safe, as we want to ensure that even during construction, our visitors have a great experience at Eureka!.

It is always exciting seeing a project progress from start to completion. Project management is a challenging role, and at times quite stressful – especially when faced with adverse weather conditions. Despite this, I really enjoy my varied role here, as I get to meet and work with lots of different people, and no day is ever the same!

Amanda Phillips is the Exhibition Manager at Eureka! The National Children’s Museum

Walking the plank with Scurvy Sam

Life as an Enabler is full of challenges, and not all of them from the children we work with! Take outreach: you might not know that almost every day during the term times, one of us is out giving a workshop or programme at local schools. One recent visit was to Leeds, with my partner in the day's workshop, Enabler Michelle, where we gave the ‘Scurvy Sam’ workshop at Ingram Road School.

It was a two-workshop day, and we had just arrived from Todmorden, no thanks to our GPS. After lunch, we found our reliable van would no longer lock! Off we went though, there was a workshop to deliver!

Thirty-five children, aged nine to 11 were waiting to experience Scurvy Sam, delivered by Dr Lind, the 18th century naval surgeon who actually discovered the cause of Scurvy and Captain Sam, feared and respected pirate of the high seas. (That’s still Michelle and I, by the way). The ‘Scurvy Sam’ outreach is funded by the ‘Big Lottery Awards for All’ who are keen to put out a positive message to children about health.

Our stage was a hessian-cloth covered table with a huge pirate flag for Dr. Lind to hide on when he’s not on deck with Captain Sam. We put out a large treasure chest, covered in fishing nets and assorted sea-life, for the Captain sits to tell her story. To really complete the shipboard experience, there were assorted lanterns, fishing baskets and the aforementioned anchor and lifebelt strewn around for extra atmosphere.

Enabler Tasha with a heap 'o pirate treasure

Once we were set up I went to change into my pirate outfit; shirt, jewellery, jacket, fancy headgear and a great pair of buckled black boots I’d recently purchased from a local charity shop – perfect for Captain Sam. I walked back into the hall and nearly slid straight onto my behind! Fancy high-heeled boots and shiny school hall floors are not a perfect combination!

To describe the workshop in a nutshell; Captain Sam and her crew have been coming down with some '’orrible bodily conditions' and need to get better in time for her wedding in a month. They have captured Dr. Lind, who believes they are suffering from the scurvy; among other things. The children’s task is to diagnose the pirate’s symptoms, find out which vitamins and/or minerals they are lacking and what foods they need to eat to get better. They then examine the pirate’s diet – looking at ‘Ye Olde Plate that tells you how to eat well’ and remembering what they discovered in their research. Having come to the conclusion that it is the pirate’s diet that is the cause of all their problems, they then devise a new diet that will cure all the pirate’s and keep them fit and healthy.

The whole thing is a rollickingly good adventure; with very active pirate training (climb the rigging, fire the cannon and man the lifeboats for example) and, of course, a bit of song and dance for everybody to join in with. We take Dr Lind’s clinical trials and put them to the tune of ‘What shall we do with a drunken sailor’ – changing the words to:

What shall we do with a pirate sailor?(x3)
When he’s got the scurvy?

And the verses give the clinical trials and their results, e.g.

Gargle with sulphuric acid. (x3)
That just makes your throat sore!

(Incidentally, the real Dr. Lind is widely believed to have conducted the first ever clinical trials)

The song is accompanied by a hilarious pirate dance; which we knew would be a big hit because in training we were all practically crying with laughter when we learned it! The children did love it, and you’ll be pleased to know I did manage to stay on my feet, despite the fancy footwear!

Children getting 'hands on' at a Scurvy Sam workshop!

Near the end of the workshop the children, in four groups, had devised a day’s worth of food and drink from the range of food on offer.

Breakfast – corn flakes & milk, wholemeal toast with low fat spread and jam and fresh orange juice
Lunch       - baked potato & beans, crisps and cola
Dinner     - pasta Bolognese with salad and broccoli, water and a slice of cake
Snacks    - grapes, orange segments and carrot sticks

When we put the groups together they decided there was a bit too much sugar so the ‘lunch’ group immediately volunteered to change their cola for a strawberry smoothie. I thought overall it was a pretty successful menu.

The last part of the workshop involves us turning the children into a giant bar of chocolate … to show the relative percentages of sugar, fat, protein and flavourings contained in one! I do amuse myself sometimes imagining what a parent might think, when they ask their child what they did at school today, if they reply –

 'I was turned into a bar of chocolate by a pirate and an 18th century naval surgeon!'

After all the clearing away we set off to the car park with all our props to see if the van was still there - thankfully it was. Our satnav was still acting up, and she finally gave up the ghost, but luckily, we knew where we were and had a straightforward journey back to Eureka!

As always, it was a thoroughly enjoyable day, despite the technical problems.

Jill Ward is an Enabler at Eureka! The National Children’s Museum