{"id":6389,"date":"2015-07-15T07:02:28","date_gmt":"2015-07-15T07:02:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/?p=6389"},"modified":"2015-07-15T07:02:28","modified_gmt":"2015-07-15T07:02:28","slug":"at-last-some-real-outdoor-learning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/2015\/07\/15\/at-last-some-real-outdoor-learning\/","title":{"rendered":"At last, some real outdoor learning"},"content":{"rendered":"

Friday and Saturday morning found me in (two different) Wiltshire fields under ephemeral\u00a0cirrus cloud, amid bird noise and warmed by\u00a0a\u00a0strong\u00a0breeze. \u00a0I was with about 40 other people on each occasion at [i] the launch of Wiltshire Wildlife Trust's Wild Connections<\/a><\/em> project, and [ii] an archeological dig at Marden (the largest UK henge you may not have heard of).<\/p>\n

Wild Connections <\/em>(a quintessentially outdoors project)\u00a0was launched indoors\u00a0with the aid of runaway powerpoint slides and far too many presentations, one of which was so\u00a0verbally incontinent\u00a0that it went on for three times its allotted slot. \u00a0We all sat dutifully quiet, and far too polite. \u00a0We were eventually released into the open air for a walk round the Langford Lakes reserve, and were so frustrated that conversation broke out immediately. \u00a0I was able to talk to many people about the project, the reserve, the Trust, local development problems, student internships, and about the state of conservation in Wiltshire. \u00a0I made sure I talked to some of those who'd made presentations (apart from those who wilfully over-ran). \u00a0I even found a passing expert who knew the name of a flower that I could not identify \u2013\u00a0ribbed melilot<\/a>. \u00a0We were stopped at intervals for updates on particular features, but this added to the stimulus and\u00a0did not detract from the enjoyment.<\/p>\n

All this rather anarchic conversation in the open air made up for the overly-organised start. \u00a0How much better this would have been, I reflected, had there been a brief (15-20 mins?) input at the start:<\/p>\n

Welcome \u00a0\/ \u00a0Introduction to Wild Connections and its purposes \u00a0\/ \u00a0Identification of the experts in the room (I suppose they might have been given two minutes each,\u00a0sans\u00a0powerpoint, to describe their role) \u00a0\/ \u00a0the instruction to go forth to connect and\u00a0converse \u2013 and learn.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

An additional possibility would have been to have had stations round the reserve with poster displays where experts could have foregathered. \u00a0We'd have had more time outside, even more conversation, and greater opportunities to learn.<\/p>\n

The Marden dig, by contrast, was all in the field \u2013 well, two fields to be precise. \u00a0In the first field (it was inside the henge), we gathered round the dig leader, Jim Leary<\/a>, an articulate and thoughtful academic from Reading, who talked lucidly for 15 minutes or so about Marden, henges, the Late Neolithic, and the dig. \u00a0At the end of which he said \"Let's go to see what we're doing; we can talk on the way\". \u00a0And so off we ambled, talking and admiring the setting of the Marden henge inside a\u00a0great bowl formed of Salisbury Plain and the Marlborough Downs. \u00a0As settings go, it was quite something, even for someone like me who is used to such things.<\/p>\n

The dig was in the next field, and there was further input against a backdrop of great\u00a0student activity with picks, shovels, wheelbarrows, grids, trowels, even smaller trowels, scrapers, brushes and bags. \u00a0I'll spare you the detail<\/a>, but never has soil been so\u00a0dramatic, even to an untutored eye. \u00a0Back in the first field, we looked at some of the finds along with a Time Team stalwart, before heading off to the rather splendid local pub. \u00a0It had\u00a0all been outside and oral, and rather perfect. \u00a0I wondered to myself how long it took Jim Leary to decide not to use powerpoint. \u00a0You know<\/em> the answer.<\/p>\n

I said that Leary\u00a0was articulate and thoughtful, which he was. \u00a0He was also intent on our learning something about henges (that is: LNMEs \u2013 Late Neolithic Monumental Enclosures), about the people who lived there, and about how we know what we know about them. \u00a0He was scrupulous about setting out where the uncertainties lay, about the relationship between speculation and understanding, and about how explanation and evidence go hand in hand. \u00a0He was explaining how they theorise the Neolithic from the present day cultural landscape, and made archeology seems utterly thrilling (despite its being 99% kneeling, digging and scraping). \u00a0Such skill, then and now. \u00a0I am still thinking about it ...<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Friday and Saturday morning found me in (two different) Wiltshire fields under ephemeral\u00a0cirrus cloud, amid bird noise and warmed by\u00a0a\u00a0strong\u00a0breeze. \u00a0I was with about 40 other people on each occasion at [i] the launch of Wiltshire Wildlife Trust's Wild Connections...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comment","category-talks-and-presentations"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6389\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}