Held in the science lab. Sarah, Claire, Todd Shelby and Derek Brown are present. Sarah appears to be leading the meeting.
One thing that strikes me straight away is that a copy of the national curriculum for science is laid in the middle of the table. This is along with a red die with stickers on. It has forces on the sticker (push, pull, squeeze, squash, twist and another)
After a few minutes I finally realise that what they're doing is designing a show for the science theatre. I had thought initially that this was something to do with exhibits, so things make a lot more sense now.
Sarah starts off by listing a set of possible forces "stories". Notable that one starts with "A man hits a...". Predominantly Sarah and Claire talking at first. Todd starts to contribute but Derek is very quiet.
They are talking about various show possibilities. Sarah likes things that show everday, domestic activities while Claire likes things that go "bang" a lot. Claire is very keen on knocking down a wall while Sarah wants to focus on things like vaccuuming.
Todd's role seems to be to mention things they have done in the past and to have an idea about what current exhibits might be useful. He mentions "heave ho" (the pulley) and "ants" frequently. He also talks about a "blower" they seem to have.
Derek starts to contribute. He is surprisingly jokey. At one point, when talking about a hoist, he suggests hoisting a kid and they joke a bit about this. I get the impression that Sarah is not too comfortable with that style of humour though.
When debating ideas, Todd takes Claire's side and says that "simple ideas" can be done by schools so it's up to TQ to do things that schools can't do.
They then get onto a discussion about magnetic forces and ask Derek about the biggest magnet. Derek can get one but the absolute biggest magnet is stuck to a shelf.
The national curriculum is used frequently as a point of reference. At one point when debating about how to explain measring forces, Sarah asks if it is in the curriculum. Todd takes the chance to explain to us that they keep the curriculum "front and centre" during the design of shows. I got the feeling at the time that he was doing this for the camera but afterwards, given the way he speaks, I think it was just his normal speaking style.
Sarah keeps returning to "do we need a story" and pressing the case for "small" "everyday" things so they revisit that. Todd argues once more for spectacular. Sarah starts to get a little jokey and becomes insistent on "squashing" something. They joke around for a bit until Claire mentions painting a face on on a foam block and squashing it so that it smiles. They all seem quite keen on this idea.
Derek has to leave early.
Sarah talks about using a hoover to show "pulls". I really struggle to keep quiet for a minutes because hoovers do not pull. They argue the toss for a little while until Todd points this out and then explains it to Sarah.
They also discuss whether or not to show gravity. Todd thinks maybe yes but Sarah thinks it may be too confusing. Sarah wins the argument by appealing to the Nat Cur where it has no reference to teaching gravity.
Todd asks about how much video they can use and is told no more than 2 minutes - I'm not sure whether this is for teaching reasons or copyright issues.
The meeting winds up. As with the IE meetings they seem to be still at an early stage and without a clear vision of how the show will develop. That said, I am getting the impression that a lot of informal discussion goes on outside of these meetings.