The University Chronicles: The final visit!

I have officially completed all of my open days and offer holder visit days! 

I went to my final one in Birmingham today and it was great! It started with talks about Archaeology and Ancient History, then we had a taster session about Sparta which was interesting to see how the methods of teaching varied from my AS Sparta module to University. It was a lot more relaxed and the lecturer even bought in a replica Spartan shield (minus the bronze plating...) which was really cool! 

We then got chance to ask questions and then we went to the Archaeology tech department. It was amazing. I haven't really been shown any of the technology that's used at any other university, only usual science style labs so it was exciting to walk into a room and come across interactive tables! They were basically massive iPads mounted on stands and it was incredible! There were loads of pictures of items they have in their museum and you could move them, enlarge and turn them which was quite entertaining - there was even an option to read more about the artefact! There were also videos showing different  artefacts that had been scanned and their 3D counterparts were being rotated and shown from lots of different angles to get a feel for the objects. 

They also build and use virtual models to get a feel for what a place would be like, such as Rome, and then create a programme so you can 'walk' around Ancient Rome and see what it would have been like! 

It was really exciting to see the sort of technology that is available to use in Archaeology and to see how it can improve learning as well as being just an awesome tool to be able to access! 

Even though I probably won't end up at Birmingham, it's still exciting to see it all!

Jess xx