Lucy - Work Experience - Day 10 - 16.07.10

This is my last day but yesterday was when I said thank you and goodbye to most people since today there is hardly anyone here. The other work experience guy and Gareth, my supervisor, are not here today. I have finish the review sheets in my blue folder and written a short overall review about my placement here. I have helped Caroline by typing in information about the artefacts in the museum to add things and try and bring the database up to date. I have also extensively researched some locations of accommodation for some of the team who will be diving again in September. Around lunchtime I went on a hunt around a lot of ships around Southampton to look for some things that were required for an activity at the museum in the Isle of Wight, this took a while and in the end we only got one of of teh two needed objects. I have gone through the In Print communication software and finished of my blog. I have enjoyed my time here and it has been really interesting and useful. I hope that I will come back again at some point in the future. There are been good points and some bad points but I have coped well and it has been great. I wish all the luck to the HWTMA for the future and would like to say thank you for the two weeks I have shared with them all.

Lucy

Lucy - Work Experience - Day 9 - 15.07.10

Today when I arrived I didn't have that much to do. I looked through all my work and files to check the formatting and that I liked them. Amanda managed to have a look over the airlift posters so I made a few changes there. I was then given the task of trying to research about the Junker 88 and the types of things you could do with it such as making a model, posters, activities and footage. I had a chat and filled in a form with Gareth about my placement overall. He said some nice positive things but also gave me some useful information about things I need to remember that will help me in the future. I then wrote down some feedback and a few sentences about my stay here. Tomorrow I will just be finalising everything and going through a few things with Caroline.

Lucy

Lucy - Work Experience - Day 8 - 14.07.10

Today I had to get up extra early so I could leave home and get a lift down to Portsmouth with my dad. We went to the Wightlink Ferry Terminal but at first no-one was there so I had a hot chocolate and my dad had a coffee in Costa while we waited. After a while the maritime bus arrived and I collected by stuff from the boot of our car then helped to get it set up. There was just three of us - myself, Gareth and the other work experience student. We set up the van and at first we had a few families and some of the terminal workers come over but the day was quite slow. Around lunch time there was about 20 minutes of torrential rain so no-one came to see us. After that there was only one or two other people interested in the bus so we packed away early. It was an alright day since some people did come over and were interested. The other times when there wasn't anybody it was relaxing simply sitting on the bean bags and reading all the books in the bus.

Lucy

Lucy - Work Experience - Day 7 - 13.07.10

This morning I was really looking forward to my work experience today despite being a little bit late. When I arrived the office was very full since at the beginning nearly everyone was here. I got to work straight away on the posters and the activity sheet which I was making in CorelDRAW. Around 9:30 one of the teachers from school came to have an appointment where he discussed what I had been doing, what I thought of it and if I had any targets. It was nice to see him and he was also really enthusiastic about the maritime bus. Throughout the day I have had numerous checkpoints and conversations with Gareth who is my work experience supervisor who has been helping me. Finally I got them looking good, how I wanted them and all correctly aligned. After this while I was waiting I wrote out a permission letter to send to the relevant owners of the images we want to use but don't own. I have put all of these documents into a PDF version, however these took ages with the posters because they wouldn't all fit. I have backed the up in my own area and on the hard-drive. We will be sending the letters asking permission as an attachment to an email this evening. In the mean time I hope that Amanda who is the boss will read the posters through so that on Thursday we can put them together and hopefully be able to send them to print very soon. Even though I have three days left, I have really enjoyed my time here. Tomorrow I am going to the Wightlink Ferry Terminal in Portsmouth with the maritime bus so I have to get up extra early.

Lucy

Lucy - Work Experience - Day 6 - 12.07.10

Today has been a really nice day with a great start to the second week. When I arrived there were two people who I hadn't meet before who had been out diving previously which was nice. I discussed with my work experience supervisor about the variety of things I could do which are to create some posters about the airlift and also in spare time perhaps invent some signs for Fort Victoria. I have made two really good, informational, colourful posters to do with teh airlift on a new programme called CorelDraw. This took a while for me to get used to since at first I hated it as it couldn't make it do what I wanted but now I really like it because I'm finding it easier. I have moved desks again today, but to my knowledge I will be here all week. There was another work experience person today as well so now I not the only one. Today was fairly full on with more people in the office, two students and many phone calls but I enjoyed it. Looking forward to tomorrow since my teacher is coming in to check up on me which should be interesting. Also we have finished the cakes that my mum made which everyone enjoyed.

Lucy

Lucy - Work Experience Day 5 - 09.07.10

Today on Friday we organised the stuff to go in the maritime bus. This included filling the sides of the model drawer with black material which gave a really good effect. After a few car swaps to transport various people and equipment we went to the NOC to take the van over to a history conference at Botley Park Hotel so once we set up, it was quite a long wait and there was only one other exhibitor who was a gentlemen from OCR. We got a free lunch which was really nice but it was so hot, so the shade provided by the van was really good. At the end of lunch we had quite a few people come over to talk to us and they took a few leaflets. After about twenty minutes of this, maybe more, they had all gone back inside. I put together a few packs of different books and leaflets for others to take away and then we packed up again. It was a fairly bizarre day but it was nice to talk to some enthusiastic people and although I didn't do very much it was very nice and relaxing after the busy week. I also got to go home early since it was hot and there was nothing for me to do in the office.

Lucy

Lucy - Work Experience - Day 4 - 08.07.10

Today when I arrived at the office I had thought I was going to be late only to discover that the building was completely locked up when I tried to open both the back and the front door. After trying to call a few people, I waited inside the bus shelter for about 15 minutes until one of my colleagues came along. I have gone through some of the 'Widget software' pictures with some of the adults here who thought that I had done a good job. At first the tried to guess what the pictures meant since I had deliberately covered up the words. It worked reasonably well so this gave us courage. I then put together a few of the sentence pictures that they like together to print out for use in the maritime bus. They are roughly A5 laminated sheets which have some groovy pictures on it to stick on the outside of the big green drawers. I have also finished, improved, printed and finally laminated 'The Booklet of Artefacts' which will hopefully help those who board the bus but especially volunteers like me. It tells them what there is, the time period and some information about it that I partially found out myself. I think it looks really good although when I first tried the laminator it over-heated ad got stuck. I was going to get my new project today however there were so many phone calls and everyone else was working on there own things. I have been left to my own devices, and despite it being quite a relaxing and easy day I have finished all my tasks. Tomorrow we are going in the bus over to Botley and I'm hoping to bring in some cake as well. I am very tired so I am looking forward to the weekend although I will be busy, it will be a break.

Lucy

Lucy - Work Experience - Day 3 - 07.07.10

I arrived at the office slightly late today but it was OK. I spent about an hour in the back of the maritime bus trying to measure up every possible length and angle of the model ship drawer. This was to enable originally to see if it would be possible to get a placard in the back however now it is simply going to be covered in dark material. I have worked some more on finalising some of the 'In Print - Widget software' and also on finishing the artefact booklet. Today was a fairly easy day. I also edited my previous blogs and the settings. I mainly improved on my various publications but I also made two more. I spent all afternoon putting together a piece by piece contents list of the different sections of the manual and about what I thought of them. I have also briefly put together a few paragraphs introduction to the maritime bus that others could use. In teh office again tomorrow where I will print the booklet of artefacts.

Lucy

Lucy - Work Experience - Day 2- 06.07.10

Today I was supposed to get up at 6am however I only woken up half an hour later. After being driven into Southampton, I arrived at the National Oceanography Centre with plenty of time to spare. We left to drive the big, blue maritime bus to a Porchester junior school. We had to set it up which was quite tricky but it looked really good once we had. It was colourful, interactive, accessible and I think it is quite cool. There were many amazing yet old artefacts that all the children could hold. The youngsters ranged from ages 8 to 11 years old. Most of them were fine but towards the end there were a few trouble makers who kept on actually drawing on each other. During the day I had a wander around the bus myself, answered a few questions, took some pictures of the bus which I am hoping to use in some of my projects and read a few books on the bean bags. Overall it was a really good day though the lunch break was lovely because it was nice and long in which I asked a few questions of the adults. I feel the van is good and I thought that some of the children had some really good ideas. I felt it was a good day although again, I am very exhausted. Back to the office tomorrow.

Lucy

Lucy - Work Experience - Day 1- 05.07.10

Today has been my first day of work experience at the Southampton office for the Hampshire and Wight Trust of Maritime Time Archaeology. I arrived at about 9.40am and met a lady who then showed me around the office on a small tour and introduced me to the other workers there. I at first had to fill out a form for them about why I had chosen that placement. I then took a look at the newly constructed model of a shipwrecked collier which I had to create a label for. I was then given two tasks to complete during my time there which were to make an interesting and informational artefacts booket. The other thing was very new and I would be the first one using it. It was a software program that allows you to simplify language into the basic pictures which they would like me to explore, tell the about and create labels and possibly a booklet using it. I also used one of the cameras to take some pictures of the small, yellow submarine sets. Overall I had a really good day despite not eating or drinking anything because I was so busy. However now I am really knackered and dreading having to wake up at 6am for get the van to Porchester tomorrow.

Lucy

James Day 7

Today is my last day at HWTMA! I've had a really good time doing my work experience here and I will be sad to leave and go back to school. Today I went over to the NOC to help out with some admin stuff in preparation for the dives next week. Then I came back to queens terrace to finish up some various different things i had started during the week. I made a few final adjustments on various documents for the time line and saved them all in the right places. I then filled in a couple of different forms evaluating my time here. It's beeen great doing my work experience here. I have learnt a lot and it has been great fun!

James Day 5/6

On Wednesday I went to the UAC on the Isle of Wight. I saw where my timeline would go and also helped with some school groups who were visiting the museum. On Thursday I finished up the timeline project. Then I received a brief lesson on flints and then analysed some flint finds from the bouldnor site. I then had to find and priunt up to date wreck plans for the ships Hazardous and Impregnable.