From fungi to faulty protractors: workshop with Neale-Wade Community College
31st January 2013 | 0 Comment(s) | Whipple Museum of the History of Science
After their first scheduled visit had to be cancelled due to icy weather conditions, I was delighted to finally welcome students from Neale-Wade Community College to the Whipple Museum.
During an introductory tour, we considered the relationships between the beauty of an object and other aspects like purpose or utility. The more a scientific instrument is used, the greater the chances of it getting broken, lost and even, eventually, thrown away. Those instruments that survive intact to end up in a museum are more likely to have been intended as display pieces from the start – and so designed for form as much as function.
Next, Don Paterson offered the students some inside tips on poetry and writing. Following advice from Don on how to be sensitive to your environment and ‘let your object find you’, the students explored the Whipple with purpose. The galleries were almost silent, but filled with concentration.
After lunch, the students reported back on the objects they planned to write about. From a wax embryo to an astrolabe, glass models of fungi to faulty protractors, their choices ranged over the variety of objects in our collections.
Working with such enthusiastic and thoughtful students is a pleasure. I look forward to seeing their finished poems.
Vashka dos Remedios
Whipple Museum of the History of Science
Image: Glass model of Bremia lactucae (C) the Whipple Museum (Wh.5826.24)
