Peak into the past: an archaeo-astronomy summer school Daniel Brown, Natasha Neale and Robert Francis ABSTRACT Our landscape has been shaped by humans over millennia. It still contains many clues to how it was used in the past, giving us insights into ancient cultures and their everyday life. Our summer school uses archaeology and astronomy as a focus for effective out-of-classroom learning experiences. It demonstrates how a field trip can be used to its full potential by utilising ancient monuments as outdoor classrooms. This article shows how such a summer school can be embedded into the secondary curriculum. We provide advice, example activities and locations to visit, and outline the impact this work has had. How it all began What needed to be planned? Over recent years, initiatives have been brought The initial planning of the summer school activities forward to encourage learning outside the was supported by working closely with a core group traditional classroom environment, especially of four G&T students in the months before the in topics such as physics and mathematics. actual event. They were given the topic of ‘What These new approaches are used to illustrate is archaeo-astronomy?’ to research. Their results how science, technology, engineering and were used to assess their knowledge and initial mathematics (STEM subjects) relate to everyday misconceptions about archaeology and astronomy. life. Traditionally, locations associated with This allowed us to develop activities that were physics- and mathematics-based activities have more suited to the age group. been planetariums and science parks. National From their feedback, it soon became clear Parks and ancient monuments were related to that the larger and unique ancient monuments ecological, biological and geographic fieldwork (such as Stonehenge) were well known by the (Braund and Reiss, 2005). parents and the teachers. However, local and Given the recent interest in astronomy during equally impressive monuments were unknown. the International Year of Astronomy (2009), the This led to the exploration of sites that were only five-day summer school focused on the topic an hour’s drive away from the school, as outdoor of archaeo-astronomy. This topic acts as an classroom environments. ideal melting pot for many subjects covered in Additionally, the movement of the rising and school: astronomy, physics, geography, biology, setting locations of the Sun during the seasons religious studies, information and communication was not well known or was merely generalised to technology, and archaeology. Many of these east and west. This is a common misconception subjects are STEM related and include aspects of and a result of our modern lifestyle with light citizenship. pollution and built-up areas obstructing the view The summer school took place in 2009 and of the horizon. Therefore, determining of the was carried out together with Meden School and alignment of some sites would be required. The Technology College, Worksop, to support student results would then allow the students to compare transition from primary to secondary schools. the orientation of the sites with the varying rising Twenty-seven gifted and talented (G&T) students and setting points of the Sun during the seasons. participated, covering age groups from years 5 and 6 This involved the introduction of Stellarium, a at primary school (age 9–11 years) and years 7 and simple and free planetarium software package (see 8 at secondary school (age 11–13 years). Websites), and the use of a magnetic compass. SSR September 2011, 93(342) 83 Peak into the past: an archaeo-astronomy summer school Brown, Neale and Francis It also allowed the students to understand how The size and structure of Arbor Low lent able ancient civilisations were with regard to itself to developing activities that incorporated construction and observations. area and volume calculations. These could then Two local sites were chosen, around which the be used to determine the weight of stones and summer school was developed: Arbor Low and estimate the time it took to build the site. Also, Nine Ladies (Box 1). The UK has an abundance the site shows clear evidence of its changed of such sites and other examples can be located use over the millennia as well as signs of the using Burl (2005). earliest excavations by the first archaeologists BOX 1 Interesting Peak District monuments The Peak District National Park is Britain’s first national park and is located as shown in Figure 1 between the two metropolitan areas of Manchester and Sheffield. Its landscape has been changed by humans from the early Bronze Age up until now. For the summer school, two sites were selected that not only offered impressive stone monuments but were also situated in different landscapes. When visiting any sites on non-public-access land, care should be taken to inform the landowner beforehand; Arbor Low is such an example (contact: B. Walley of Mosar Farm, Ashbourne Road, Monyash). Arbor Low Arbor Low is a large stone circle constructed in multiple phases and consisting of limestone stones (some 4 m tall) now fallen over and surrounded by a large ditch and embankment (Figure 2). The monument is nearly 100 m in diameter and lies within a meadow. It shows clear evidence of former archaeological digs by the antiquarian T. Bateman. Nine Ladies Figure 1 A map of the Peak District National Park Nine Ladies is a smaller stone circle made of indicating its general location and points of interest gritstones and only 10 m in diameter (Figure 3). It is located in the burial area on Stanton Moor. It shows some signs of a Victorian wall surrounding it and is linked to recent protests against quarrying close by. Figure 2 A panoramic view of the central part of Arbor Low Figure 3 The summer school group at Nine Ladies 84 SSR September 2011, 93(342) Brown, Neale and Francis Peak into the past: an archaeo-astronomy summer school (antiquarians) in the eighteenth century (McGuire BOX 2 Nine Ladies and Smith, 2008). Its location within a field used by sheep was The Nine Ladies site can be reached via the in stark contrast to the site of Nine Ladies, which village of Stanton in Peak. A bus can park in a is in the middle of Stanton Moor. Ecological wider area along the village street indicated in comparisons were made between the two sites Figure 4. It is not easy to turn in the village and using methods such as quadrat and transect it is advisable to take a route through Birchover sampling, soil pH, exposure and temperature. to rejoin the B5056 again (see inset). The group A pre-visit was required to establish the current can walk to the village hall, which provides usage of the land and to understand the land usage toilet facilities and a large open space both during the past, to develop appropriate activities inside and outside to relax and have lunch. supporting such work. Additional knowledge of the Bookings must be made before the trip. There flora of the area was required to assist the pupils are no eating facilities in the village except for a with the identification of species during sampling. small pub. Pre-visits were also undertaken for both sites The actual site is only a short 1.5 km walk to assess any risks and to help to comply with away. Some of the walk is along quiet roads out-of-school activity guidelines. This included that in parts do not have dedicated pavements. establishing a meeting point in case of bad However, half of the walk is over public footpaths weather and determining the required (specialist) off road that are uneven and rocky in places, supervision ratio. More details on the logistics and can be muddy. Therefore sturdy footwear is around Nine Ladies at the village of Stanton in advised. Keep following the main footpath and Peak can be found in Box 2. you arrive at Nine Ladies to your right. Making it all come together Stanton in Peak and the Stanton Moor region are frequently visited by tourists. However, if The summer school itself consisted of five days. other sites are visited, care should be taken to During the first two days, activities based at ensure the support of the local community. Meden School were carried out. These were designed to introduce the topics covered in the At the time of writing, bookings for Stanton in summer school and develop the required skills. Peak village hall can be made for a charge of These two days incorporated some teacher- £4 + VAT per hour for non-residents (contact: focused sessions but were overall student Mrs Corran, Middle Street, Stanton in Peak; focused, using many practical experiments and telephone: 01629 636915). competitions. Day three was dedicated to visiting the two ancient monuments. The collected data were then analysed on day four during a workshop at the Centre for Effective Learning in Science (CELS) at Nottingham Trent University (NTU). During this time the group also visited the observatory at NTU and experienced a planetarium session. Day five was a presentation day at which the students presented the results of their work to their parents at a specially booked conference venue within the working day. They planned the event, designed the displays and invited guests. Furthermore, they prepared the required props for their presentation. During this phase they were in total control of the creative process, which Figure 4 The Stanton in Peak area and a allowed assessment of the impact that the summer possible route to access Nine Ladies school had had on the entire group. Some of the activities related to the topic ‘How much work was needed to construct an ancient SSR September 2011, 93(342) 85 Peak into the past: an archaeo-astronomy summer school Brown, Neale and Francis monument?’ and how they make use of the outdoor (shoulder blade), small plastic spades (Figure 6).