Our activity, Secrets from Beyond the Grave - What will your bones say about you? was led by Dr James Edwards and his group and looked at how our bones retain the story of our lives, revealing how we have lived and died from ancient times to modern day.
Visitors were encouraged to play with bones treated to be either bendy or breaky, look through a microscope to see the details of bones, and get competitive with our bone identification card game. Our two resident skeletons were also at hand for photo opportunities and the odd skeleton wedding.
Speaking of the event, Dr Edwards said: "It was great to spend a Friday evening talking about our research and the work of NDORMS, with the public. From the moment doors opened, our display was swamped with interested visitors (including ghouls and ghosts of all descriptions) and seemed at times that all 3000 attendees had descended on us."
"It is surprising how keen the public are to put on gloves and get 'hands-on' with our exhibits, but they really seem to love it and are genuinely interested in skeletal biology and health. It was also wonderful to see the team interacting with the public in such a positive way and I know they all enjoyed it tremendously; they did a great job. One clued up visitor even remarked that our 'Boney or Phoney' card game is "a fantastic science outreach activity".
Thank you to the Ashmolean Museum for such a fantastic opportunity; we enjoyed our evening as much as the visitors!
You can see more photos of event on our Facebook page.