My SHARE with Schools Experience: Volunteer Blog Post – Sophie Joyce

Volunteering at the science fair was so fun! I got to handle real animal bones and oversaw the game of ‘bone snap’ which involved matching bones to different animals. The game was a hit with both adults and children getting involved. It was a great learning experience of thinking on the job and adapting to different situations. As the session went on, I got more confident in answering questions as well as asking questions to enable the visitors to get the most out of the experience. As someone who hasn’t looked at animal bones before, I’ve learnt a bunch of interesting facts about how we can use archaeology to learn about the life and death of the animals. My favourite was when we told visitors about their floating bones as we got many fun reactions especially from young children. Alongside the bones, we had a microscope which enabled visitors to look at objects such as coins and flint up close. Overall, I would highly recommend volunteering at a fair with SHARE with Schools. It was a unique experience which enabled me to interact with a range of ages and allowed me to develop my skills of conveying information as well as adapting this information depending on who I was speaking too. The coordinators organised a really interesting stall and I’m glad I could have been a part of it.