Discoveries Continue and Observation Training Underway

Two discoveries related to my work in England last summer were made in the last couple of weeks. If only I had been there to share in the excitement!

The first, a small find, was made at Arbeia, the Roman supply fort I dug at with Earthwatch this summer. Volunteers from a local law firm, participating in a community service-type day out, uncovered a woman’s hairpin made of animal bone. This was of particular interest to me having worked on the women’s finds research project on our rainy days.  

The second discovery, a much larger one, took place just outside of St Albans, where I spent time at the wonderful Virulamium Museum. A “nationally significant” hoard of gold Roman coins was found with a metal detector in a field outside of St Albans. I am very excited for the wonderful staff at the Virulamium that the coins will be on display there.

Back in my classroom, we are busy nurturing our scientific inquiry skills. Each week we hold a “See, Think, and Wonder” session, doing our best to make our thinking visible. We observe objects, both familiar and unfamiliar, and, after silent observation time as a group, we share attributes of the object we see, thinking statements about what we are fairly certain of, and lastly our wonderings. Sometimes our wonderings lead to scientific inquiry in our classroom Science Center. Others, when necessary, lead us to the published research of others. I’m looking forward to introducing the artifacts related to my work this summer once we have the routines down. I hope you’ll stay tuned.

We started with the familiar, an apple,...

...and then moved to the unfamiliar, a mystery box.

 This is a tool we use in our Science Center, 

isolating our sense of touch.