Trainee Blog 2 – 04.06.2015
By Sarah Perry, Saltscape trainee.
Since writing my last blog I have helped to put the finishing touches to the Saltscape Salt, Science and Heritage education programme and worked with Crowton Primary School to bring the session to life.
All of the planning, inventing and creating that myself and the Saltscape Education Officer have been doing over the past few weeks paid off as we successfully launched the pilot school session on May 21st at the Lion Salt Works. There were a few nervous moments the day before whilst we awaited equipment that had not yet arrived, but just in the nick of time to mark the end of the day a huge box was delivered and in it… lab coats. Year 4 were to become scientists yet.
The pupils donned the roles of history detectives and mini scientists to discover all of the fascinating facts behind the science of salt whilst unearthing Cheshire’s salty past with the Lion Salt Works very own pub landlord. They started their journey back through time by “being put to work” in Pan House 1 where they were greeted by a smouldering brine pan watched over by other factory workers. This introduction to factory life really gave them the wow-factor!
The afternoon promised the class a chance to experiment in a laboratory we had geared up for the exploration of salt. The lab coats proved to be a great bonus to the session with the children feeling like real scientists, which seemed to inspire them to work methodically like a scientist too!
This part of the programme was the section that I had designed experiments for and to my delight went extremely well. The children learnt which type of rock underlies Cheshire and what special properties it has that allows brine to form, they experimented with how to make brine and constructed a model showing how the Lion Salt Works transported it from underground and finally they investigated the different types of salt that used to be produced.
The teachers gave good feedback all round and the day drew to a successful close. Now on to the bigger challenge of delivering the session to 8 more classes!
Sarah