Ask a Geologist – Warwick Museum

On Saturday 30th September Kathrin Schütrumpf and Ray Pratt held a “Ask a Geologist” session at Warwick museum from 10:30 to 12:30. This event, a suggestion from Julie Harrald, was months in the planning and well advertised by the Museum. The museum set us up with a table on the ground floor where we laid out a number of WGCG sample and literature to sue in our discussions with interested public. From the moment we set out our table we were both kept busy until 12:45 (supposed to end 12:30).

1 of several families who came to our WGCG Ask a Geologist session

There were some individual adults who engaged with us, but most of those interested were families. A number of the children had brought along samples they had collected either on holiday or from near where they lived. We had some fun testing their specimens with our acid, bluetooth microscope and other tools brought along to aid identification. (Amazon may well get a boost in sales for bluetooth microscopes following this event, such was the interest). Interestingly, our visitors came from different parts of the county having heard about the event via the museum. It was a real pleasure to engage with those who came along and the enthusiasm of some of the children was uplifting. At the end of the session 9 families had signed up to be kept informed of WGCG activities.

The bluetooth microscope gave a 50 times magnification and was a big success with our visitors
This young man brought along some magnificent ammonite samples from his trip to Whitby

The material used was mostly from the WGCG collection and put together with the aid of Ian Fenwick. It would have been very difficult to run this event successfully on one’s own and having a colleague along was invaluable. WGCG would like to run this session at 2 or 3 monthly intervals. We invite anyone interested in participating either as lead or in a support role to get in touch via our email [email protected] We would love to hear from you.