WeP4A had a visit from Michael Dunnet from Historic Scotland. Mr Dunnet is a stonemason who works with stones and helps to keep the historic monuments in Shetland in good repair.
He had lots of tools to show us.
He knew lots about how the Egyptians built the pyramids and he showed us some of the techniques they would have used to get straight lines and level surfaces when building the pyramids.
Mr Dunnet showed us some of the tools that he used to work with the stones and we had a shot of using the mail and chisel. We had to use the mail whilst keeping a maths book under our arm. It was tricky! Our arms were not allowed to move much and we tapped the chisel gently.
He showed us a modern spirit level and how to use it. We tried this out on our tables – our desks are not all level!
We then made a level using water. We put water in a plastic container then let it settle. We had to be careful not to knock into the container or the water would become wavy and would not lie in a straight line. Then we drew around the water line using a felt tip. This gave us a level mark in a straight line.
We also found a level using two set squares. They were lined up on the table and we had to look through a hole and see if the second set square matched up to the first. They didn’t match up which confirmed our findings earlier about the level of our desks.
We had a brilliant time and are very grateful to Mr Dunnet for coming in to show us so many exciting things,
