We started with a brief introduction to the history of the Mary Rose before exploring the Museum. The children were challenged to think about how visitors experience the museum and what was on offer for people their own age. With iPads in hand to record anything that piqued their interest, they went through ‘Experience 1545 – when their world ended’, toured the galleries, and finished off with Dive the Mary Rose 4D. Certain exhibits were instantly popular, such as Hatch the dog, our sandpit of buried items, and even the lift caused gasps and a bit of inspiration!
We explored the models they had made in the Club, using Lego and all including moving parts. They had created virtual exhibitions, immersive art galleries, moving ships, and even a special effects dragon.
Then they set down to designing new interactive experiences for new visitors. The ideas ranged from a memory room for Hatch and a 4D story of his life to interactive trails as you went up in the lift. They were quite strict… any wrong answers meant visitors were not allowed to progress through the museum which might not go down too well on TripAdvisor!
The 4D experience was a key inspiration point and one piece of work wanted to create a new film about the sinking with added smells of seaweed and salt water, a fully immersive experience.
Overall, the kids really engaged with the day and produced some very imaginative responses to the museum. We very much enjoyed being ‘taken over’ by them and look forward to the next Takeover Day in 2024.
