Education

The very existence of the Museum is founded on the vision that the Museum serves to educate and inform its visitors about social history and Man's interaction with this unique environment.

Aims and Objectives

To encourage greater understanding of the Broads area and how the area has shaped the lives and livelihoods of the people
To enable visitors to understand the economic importance of the Broads and the growth of tourism and its consequences.
To provide an education facility that will encourage the use of Broadland as a valuable teaching resource.
To provide a centre for the benefit of teachers and all those involved in Education.
To provide a centre where academic research can be undertaken, based on the Museum's archives, artefacts and records. This will include searches of the Museum's Catalist database.
To provide a centre where some of the National Curriculum Schemes of Work and Objectives can be studied first hand.
To provide handling materials, where appropriate, to encourage hands-on learning.
To provide outreach talks and exhibitions for people who may not be able, through economic or physical reasons, to access the Museum.

The Museum is staffed by volunteers, many of whom have been involved with education. One of the Museum's Directors is a full time teacher, working locally, who can advise visiting teachers. Many volunteers have specialist knowledge of boat-building, wherries, crafts and tools and are able to talk to visitors and answer their questions. Members of staff are willing to research the history of boats or other Broadland topics.
Education Services

These services are available at present:

Guided talks to interest groups during Museum opening times and during the evenings or weekends, by prior arrangement.
Talks, slideshows and presentations to groups in their own venues. These include the History of the Broads, the Museum, wherries, river transport.
Pre-visit preparation meetings with teachers in their school or at the Museum.
Teachers Inset at the Museum.
Worksheets and Information packs for schools.
Handling materials and art materials for children on a Museum visit.
On site talks to school and college groups either in the Discovery Room or the other museum buildings, by the Museum volunteers, many of whom are retired teachers or Museum workers.
Riverside picnic area, and covered picnic area.
A range of Broads related archive material for individual research on Broadland History, boat-building and design, boatyards, trades and crafts, etc.
Links with How Hill Education Trust, who have residential facilities for both adult and school parties, the Norfolk Wherry Trust, Nancy Oldfield Trust (access to the Broads for the disabled), Lowestoft Model Boat Club.
A video presentation showing the brief history of the Broads.

National Curriculum

Areas where the Museum can enhance or give first-hand insight in to the National Curriculum:

English
Different forms of writing genre, poetry
Worksheet design, brochure design
Stories, comparisons, information, persuasion, questioning

Maths
Number work, counting, fractions, percentages
Measuring length, area, mapping site
Handling data, graphs, piecharts
2D and 3D shapes

Science
Grouping and classifying materials, best material for boat-building,
house-building, roofing
Forces and motion, sailing, gravity, upthrust, floating, sinking
Peat digging and fuel

Geography
Study of the Broads, river study, settlements and village development
Contrasting localities, mapping the site
Fieldwork techniques
Surveys of visitors, questionnaires

History
Victorian Britain, life on the waterways, Britain since 1930s
Local history study, how the area has changed over time, tourism and railways

Art and Design
Observational drawing, tone, pattern, line, shape
Buildings and style, landscape, colour matching
Poster design (to advertise the Museum)
Boat design, model making, tapestries and textiles
Photography, media studies

Design and Technology
Tools and crafts
Design and purpose
Boat design
Making things move