Side-scan sonar

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With all this recent frosty weather we have had plenty of time in the office to create our exciting new secondary school lessons and games. The lessons focus on marine food webs, ancient landscapes and the amazing technology which helps us map the seafloor. The eLearning games are being built with the skill of web animator Chris Day from Little Creature. Each of our games are designed to test your knowledge of the seafloor AND your skill. The games will be going live in February so don’t forget to check the website.

Even though our games aren’t finished yet you can check out some other interesting ones on the following websites:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/interactive/games/

http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/games

http://www.e4.com/games/

This October half-term holiday the Explore the Seafloor team was out and about. 

The last 2010 roadshow ran at the National SEA LIFE centre in Birmingham, and it was one of our busiest.  We had lots of fun and were particularly impressed with the Halloween costumes that some of our younger visitors wore.  Katie and Sarah, Explore the Seafloor team members, also got very excited about seeing the cast of the BBC TV show “Hustle” filming at the end of their street, as well as a Jet Ski chase for a Bollywood movie along the Birmingham canals.

On the South coast ETS team member Rhonda put on a one day special event at the New Forest Centre, working alongside outreach officers from the New Forest National Park Authority.  On a miserable autumn day it was a fun way to escape the weather although people still got a bit wet at our archaeology handling table!!

Come down and handle real archaeological artefacts dredged from the depths of the sea, examine sea creatures under a magnifying glass and, if you’re brave, have a feel and guess what’s in our mystery boxes. 

The Sea LIfe centre will have lots more activities to fill in those rainy, half term days so if you are looking for something to do, come down and join us.

New Forest Centre

The New Forest National Park Authority will also be coming along to tell visitors about the exciting maritime archaeology project they are undertaking along the park’s coastline.

So come along and join us.

Go to our Events page for information

The Explore the Seafloor team were glad that the high winds and torrential rain that greeted them on arrival were quickly replaced by blue skies and warm sunshine.

It was busy over the August Bank Holiday weekend with huge numbers of people guessing artefacts in the water-table, enthusiastically sieving the geology samples and digging for facts in the sandpit.

We had lots of visitors enjoying the activities and many children spending their last week of school holiday freedom learning about the seafloor off the East Coast. Many people  enjoyed dressing up as a scientist or dredging industry staff  and the waders proving particularly popular.  We  also chatted to several people about sea level changes off the Norfolk coast following a particularly well-timed episode of BBC’s Coast about submergedbeneath the surface of the water forests in the region.

Check out our photos on Facebook

We’re taking a short break from roadshows while we prepare some online resources about the project. Our next and final roadshow will be at Birmingham Sea Life Centre during October half-term.

Following a quick pack up the roadshow moved to the lovely environs of the Great Yarmouth Sea Life Centre education room. We felt very at home surround by the colourful fish and murals. Visitors displayed an interest in the archaeological finds and were excited that many artefacts were originally found near Great Yarmouth. Our weaver fish however, stole the show bringing back people’s memories of how it feels to get up close and personal with a live one – ouch!

Weaver fish investigation.

Visit our facebook page to view the latest pictures.

We have lots of exciting activities for visitors to Explore the Seafloor of Britain’s coastal waters. Bring your family, or embrace your inner child, and dress up as a maritime archaeologist, scientist or marine dredger! We have real archaeological artefacts to hold including part of a World War 2 machine gun, a 10,000 year old mammoth tusk and part of a 1950s airplane. Younger children can dig for finds in the sand pit and touch artefacts in the water table.

Take a break from the beautiful beaches of Hunstanton and pop into the Sea Life Sanctuary to visit us. 

Scientists have spent the past 2 years investigating the exciting world beneath the sea and now it’s your turn!

Katie explains one of our archaeological finds to visitors

 On Saturday the 7^th of August Explore the Seafloor ran a hands-on workshop at the Kent Wildife Trust’s Reculver Nature Park, near Herne Bay.  The centre is an excellent venue for us as it already has great information about the archaeology and history of its surrounding area, from the Ice Age to World War II.  Visitors enjoyed handling some artefacts that date to the information at the centre, including a mammoth’s tooth and the remains of a World War II machine gun.

On Sunday the 8^th of August we journeyed on to Colchester and Essex Wildilfe Trust’s Fingringhoe Wick Nature Reserve.  It was a beautiful sunny day and so we set up outside and had lots of families stopping off to play before they took a walk around the beautiful nature reserve.  Visitor’s particularly enjoyed the dressing up and we have some great photographs of the day – check out our photograph albums on our Facebook pages.

 Overall the weekend was a great success and Explore the Seafloor would like to thank both centres for being so enthusiastic and welcoming.

 The weekend was great fun, exploring Britain’s history from the Stone Age through to the Romans with exhibitors and great hands-on activities to fill the whole day.  One of the highlights was the Roman re-enactors Britannia who entertained the crowd with a rather gory Roman gladiator training session. 

 Located in the Maritime tent Explore the Seafloor joined the New Forest National Park Authority’s Maritime Archaeologist and English Heritage’s own maritime specialists giving people the opportunity to discover the amazing history of Britain’s seas. 

 Explore the Seafloor would also like to thank Wessex Archaeology staff Amy Radford and Sophie Thorogood for coming along and helping out on the day.