National Army Museum Trip

2018-03-20

In the morning, we attended a body building workshop, where we learnt about injured soldiers and how their missing limbs can be replaced with prosthetic ones. To understand how the prosthetic limbs work, we got the opportunity to operate a robotic arm. It had a pincher that represented the hand. There was also a controller representing the brain and the wires represented the nerves. These robotic arms work in a similar way to prosthetic limbs.

We followed a step by step procedure of how to make tea whilst controlling the arm. We realized how difficult this was and how complex it is to design prosthetic limbs and make them work effectively. We finished off the workshop with a question: ‘What would you choose, a prosthetic arm that looked different but was stronger or a prosthetic arm that looked natural and was weaker?’ Most of the students chose the stronger arm.

After lunch we were placed into groups and we went to look around the galleries of the army museum. We saw numerous things including:
Blackened frost-bitten fingers and toes, army  accessories, real tanks that we got the chance to explore the inside of guns and a screen that had an army general that trained you to march like a soldier. Some people dressed up as the Queen’s guards.

The clothing included the red coats, black trousers and bearskin hats. The bearskin hats were very heavy and looked quite funny, but it was good fun. The trip was a memorable experience as there were unique interactive things to do.

Scarlett and Polina (Year 6)