Wellcome summer school 2006

The Wellcome Trust at the end of July 2006 ran a one week summer science school for girls from St Marylebone School and Henrietta Barnett School.

Nineteen girls from Year 9 (13 -14 yrs old) attended the summer school. The week was to be an opportunity to learn more about various aspects of science in a more informal atmosphere for the students.

As part of this science week two osteologists from the Centre for Human Bioarchaeology were asked to contribute by participating presenting an overview of what osteologists can learn from examining archaeological human skeletal remains.

This provided insight into how the information gleaned from the skeletal remains can then compliment archaeology and history and place the individuals into the context of their time.

The session was a combination of a PowerPoint presentation and a selection of skeletal  teaching elements and whole skeletons. This provided the students with an opportunity to handle material and visually experience the process of osteological analysis.

The girls experience from both the bones and the assistance of trained osteologists helped to provide a rich and valuable learning experience.

Part of the day saw a visit from a make up artist who helped illustrate what diseases looked like in the flesh by reconstructing conditions such as syphilis, smallpox and open trauma on the students. This proved a great success and gave the students ample opportunity to reflect on what it must have been like to live in the past with these diseases.