Making the Discovery Dome

Discovery Dome Discovery Dome Contents 1. Introduction 2. How to use the Discovery Dome 3. Object information and activity ideas 3.1 Big Cats 3.2 Bowl 3.3 Butterflies 3.4 Car 3.5 Carpets 3.6 Child’s Cap 3.7 Dinosaurs 3.8 Dolls 3.9 Dragon and Chinese New Year kit 3.10 Drum 3.11 Elephant 3.12 Fossils 3.13 Hedgehog 3.14 Jewellery 3.15 Ladybird and other insects 3.16 Mask 3.17 Ocarina 3.18 Robe 3.19 Sea life 3.20 Shark 3.21 Shoes 3.22 Skeletons 3.23 Textiles 3.24 Tile 3.25 Tree 4. CfE Outcomes 5. Assembly instructions 6. Health and Safety 7. Feedback 8. Returning the Discovery Dome National Museum of Scotland Discovery Dome 1. Introduction The Discovery Dome is a resource for exploration, fun, play and learning for early years groups and settings. The Dome can be used in a variety of ways – group sessions, self-led learning and investigation, role play, storytelling and as a spring board for further investigations. Designed to be easy to assemble, diverse and flexible, it can be assembled indoors or out. It is a museum in miniature covering a cross curricular range of topics, experiences and outcomes, linked to the Curriculum for Excellence at the Early Level (pre- school to approximately P1). Making the Discovery Dome The Discovery Dome was created by pupils and staff from Woodlands Nursery Centre, Fife and Knightsridge Primary School, West Lothian together with the environmental artist and teacher Karin Chipulina, with support from National Museums Scotland. Inspired by a visit to the National Museum of Scotland, the participants wanted to create a dome structure which could become a travelling home for objects and activities linked to the collections, and cosy welcoming space for early years learning. This resource has been funded by the Robertson Trust. The Robertson Trust is an independent Scottish grant-making Trust which exists to provide financial support to charities across Scotland. To find out more about the Trust please see the Trust’s website: www. therobertsontrust.org.uk. The Robertson Trust part funded the development of the new Learning Centre at the National Museum of Scotland, Chambers St, Edinburgh. To find out more about how the dome was made, please visit: www.nms.ac.uk/learning/communities/discovery_dome.aspx National Museum of Scotland All images © National Museums Scotland, unless otherwise stated. Discovery Dome 2. How to use the Discovery Dome The Discovery Dome contains a collection of over 30 real and replica objects from across the world, representing the diversity of the collections at the National Museum of Scotland which you are free to carefully handle with your class. The collection and these notes have been assembled with support from pupils and staff from Woodlands Nursery Centre in Methill, Fife and Knightsridge Primary school, West Lothian, working with staff from National Museums Scotland. The resource is designed to be used to support a range of outcomes and experiences across the Curriculum for Excellence at the early level, for example Expressive arts, Sciences, Social studies, Literacy and English, and Health and Well-being (see section 4 for CfE outcomes). The first step is to assemble the dome, and you will find instructions for this in section 5 of this guide. Once the dome has been set up you can attach the felt pouches inside the dome. These will hold most of the objects, which you will then need to match to the correct felt panel. There are images on each object information sheet in the guide to help you do this, but please note this is not strictly necessary and objects could just as effectively be placed in any pouch. You can also put up as many felt panels as you wish. Each felt panel should have an object linked to it, but some objects are too large and will need to be placed on the floor. You may also want to spread out the large Indian printed fabric and carpets on the floor to make the space cosy. Each object comes with its own object information and activity sheet, found in section 3. These notes have been provided to support your teaching by suggesting some cross-curricular activities for your group or class. The activity ideas are by no means prescriptive, so please feel free to adapt them to suit your own needs/themes/activity ideas. There are also photos of the real Museum objects which inspired the pouches and their objects. These are also discussed on the object information sheets, and can be photocopied from the guide to discuss alongside the dome’s objects In section 8 there is a feedback form which we would be very grateful if you could photocopy, complete and post back to us at the address given below after your loan of the resource. This helps us to track its use and make repairs to the items as necessary. The following is a list of ideas and tips on how to use the dome in general: National Museum of Scotland Discovery Dome Why not… • Use the object information and activity sheets to prepare ideas for using the dome with your class • Select only certain objects and put them into themes – i.e. countries, dress and costume, food, animals, etc. • Select some objects and use them in storytelling activities –i.e. make a story using only these three objects. • Use the dome as a creative, blank canvas – ask pupils to curate their own exhibition either using the existing objects or find new ones (either from school/nursery or home). If able, they could write labels and make text or image panels about the objects. • Use the dome for drama and role play – i.e. imagine it’s a cave in the desert, a Bedouin tent, a secret camp in the woods. • Use the objects for cross curricular activities like numeracy, science, technology. • Get the class to vote for their favourite objects and ask them to explain why they have chosen them. • Use access to the dome as part of a nurture group and a way to build confidence. • Use the dome as a starting point for discovering more about museums. • In smaller groups, spread large paper out in the dome and make drawings of the objects. Write big labels for the drawings and attach them to the real objects as if writing labels for an exhibition. • If there are many classes using the dome, set up a timetable so everyone has their own slot and can plan in advance how they are going to use it. • Discuss the objects as a group to encourage talking, thinking and listening skills. • Ask children to make their own versions of the felt pockets based on other objects as an art/craft activity in another medium. This could be based on their own favourite objects or from a trip to a museum. National Museum of Scotland Discovery Dome Practical Issues • Before looking at the objects, set up some ground rules for handling them. This involves: - Demonstrating yourself how to handle the objects carefully (it can help to get them to imagine they are holding a tiny kitten) - Ensuring that once they have looked at them they pass them onto the next person carefully. - Encouraging them to put the objects back into the correct pockets at the end of the session. - Explaining that many of these objects are real museum artefacts i.e. they are old and cannot be replaced if they get broken. • It is possible to fit up to15 children in the dome, but for best use of the space and more focussed work approximately 5 children per session is preferable. Contact Details: Museum2Go: Discovery Dome Learning and Programmes National Museums Scotland Chambers Street Edinburgh EH1 1JF 0131 247 4435 [email protected] National Museum of Scotland Discovery Dome 3. Object information and activity ideas 3.1 Big Cats Touch the leopard, cheetah and ocelot skins. How do they feel? Use different words to describe their texture. Look at the patterns on them. Why do you think it is like this? What is different about the three skins? (the cheetah has small, mostly complete black spots, the leopard has spots with central holes or rosettes and the ocelot has rosettes which sometimes form into curved stripes or bands) Leopards and cheetahs live mainly in Africa and some parts of Asia and the Middle East, and eat other animals in their environment. Leopards hunt their prey using stealth and stalking techniques. Cheetahs are the fastest land mammal and can run up to 75mph/120kph. Ocelots live mainly in the rain forests of the Americas (Central and South). They use the forest to stalk and ambush their prey. Like the leopard and cheetah, their spots give them some camouflage in forests and bushes, as they look at bit like dappled sunlight through trees. Ocelots are smaller than both leopards Themes and cheetahs. Predators and food chains Hunting and stalking Activity Suggestions Camouflage • Discover more about other big cats. Where do they live across the world? What do they eat? How do they hunt? • Find out more about other predators at the top of the food chain and how animals depend on each other for survival. Objects • Imagine you are a leopard prowling quietly through the plains. Walk on all fours and try to move as silently as you Leopard, cheetah and can. Pounce on your prey! Find a small tree to climb and ocelot skin samples see how high you can go (with adult supervision). • Find out about how other animals camouflage themselves.

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