From 24 June to 28 June 2024 MAT welcomed students Lucas, Pierre, and Sam from Barton Peveril Sixth Form College for their placement. The students specialise in media studies and completed this experience as part of their college course. During their time with us, they learnt about the fascinating and ever-changing history of the North-West Solent, while also understanding how their skills and expertise can be applied to archaeology.

Throughout the week they produced three posters on the history of the Solent, linking the topic to the Decade of Ocean Science’s 10 Challenges. The content focuses on how the Solent changed through time and how studying it, documenting it, and preserving it is vital to understand our past. You will soon be able to see the posters on the Discovery Bus.

The students were also introduced to the Needles Voyager, our interactive map investigating the wrecks and maritime sites around the Needles on the Isle of Wight. This map was made as part of the UNPATH’D Waters project. After familiarising themselves with the system, Lucas, Pierre, and Sam created videos on how to access it and use it; these videos will help reach a wider audience and encourage them to use the Voyager!  You can view this content on our YouTube channel.

Other resources they researched and produced are two “Artefact of the Month” videos. This series focuses on specific items hosted at the Shipwreck Centre and Maritime Museum, giving some background on how the artefacts were used and where they were found. Have a look at this month’s video, focusing on stone anchors!

Keep an eye on our YouTube channel to see their other “Artefact of the Month” in August!

The studetns were also involved in the creation of some images with AI software to promote resources created by our volunteers on social media. Have a look at the images below that they generated using one of these AI software!

Reflecting upon their experience with MAT, Lucas, Pierre, and Sam said that they appreciated the friendly and supportive environment, as well as the opportunity to gain hands-on experience and put their skills to practice. They said:

“We found our placement at the Maritime Archaeology Trust very fulfilling. This was because we had tasks related to our subjects in college, however we were still able to learn about some of the different aspects of archaeology. We learnt a lot of information during our research tasks such as the posters we made for the Solent”.

“This work experience has been extremely fun as well as being very useful for the future, due to it showing us a more realistic way of how the world works in our industry”.

We are very pleased they chose to complete their placement with us, and we are very thankful for all the incredible resources they produced! The poster resources are contributing to community events being delivered due to funding provided by the Charles Burnett Fund, administered by the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Community Foundation.