BS: The activities that do occur here, what's influencing them? Is it museum studies or other museums or is it something else?
TS: Do you mean the activities of Techniquest as opposed to those of the course?
BS: yes. I mean I know the two a related in a way but where does science communication come from?
TS: Well shall I try and answer that first - that first question?
BS: yes.
TS: Brian Delf developed an education programme for Techniquest - before 1992, I don't know quite at what stage but certainly at some stage. Because, without visits from schools - and they - I think have to - they have to be structured in some sort of way otherwise teachers won't be able to persuade schools to fund the visits. He must have come up with the idea that the best way of doing it is by having themes and a theme is something which is attached to the science curriculum of whichever school or whichever grade of school that we want to attract so that the teachers will see it as some sort of adjunct to the work that they have to do. And so will feel that here is something which is put on by scientists in some sort of way aimed at school children, which will be useful to us. And I think that by the time I started in 1992, there quite a good - what's the word that I want? Quite a good take up of these - these visits by local schools. And so it had become if you like, the staple diet if you can call it a diet, for our Monday to Friday activities. Except for the holiday time.
And - again I haven't analysed any of this but even though we were stuck out here in a - an undeveloped - in an undeveloped Cardiff Bay area, we had quite a lot of visitors at weekends and during the holidays. And so that Techniquest - I think rather happily started in the middle of town, opposite the castle, for a few months and had got something of a little reputation. And once you've got schools involved then school children are the carriers of the message back home. And if they've enjoyed it they will come again. And so I think that is the way that we managed to developed. Is that more or less cogent?
BS: yes.
TS: How he came up with the ideas of - the kinds of things to do for - schools in order to attract them and to keep attracting them I don't know. Um - the idea of themes isn't the kind of thing that they were using at that time in the science museum in London so far as I - they don't use the themes now, they have - a rather slaphappy way, in my view, of catering for school visits. But we do it in a - I think in a rather well organised way so that the teachers can see this is related to the bit of curriculum that we are doing now or that will be doing in 3 months time and so this visit can be integrated in some sort of a - into what we are doing in school.