Reading Mencap Coffee Club came to MERL to help us with our research.
We focussed on the sense of smells to begin, Kassie organised 6 bags with smells inside and asked the group to find something in the museum that linked to the smells in the bags. Kassie had placed some of the wellie boots filled with herbs in around the museum.
Smells in bags Reading Mencap
These are the places the group thought the smells belonged
The group photographed where they thought the smells belonged. Next we demonstrated some of the sensory objects developed by our Co-Researchers at Reading College.
Sroking for sounds
Sians boot was very popular mooing when stroked, although Caroline found it disturbing, she preferred the sheep fleece cushion that went baa when stroked. We are working with Reading Mencap as local advisors for our project we were keen to hear their thoughts and opinions about the project so far. The next activity was to focus on taste, lead by Robyn the group made their own smoothies and juice, they really enjoyed this, learnt about how healthy and easy it was and delicious too.
Smoothies and Juice
After Robyns delicious lunch at which we spread our bread with butter that we had made from shaking cream in a jar with a marble in it we showed the group some of the electronics kits we have used with our Co-Researchers from Reading College. We wanted to see if they found our littleBits go LARGE kit easier to use. Kevin had a go with both and found them both easy, Charlie and Miranda made some excellent sounds with the Synth Kit.
Reading Mencap try littleBits