Interviews

When they finished filming Harrison's clocks they filmed the interview with Dr Richard Dunn, a curator of the Ships, Clocks and Stars exhibition, who provided us with a lot of great answers. We also found out that at the time France had been in the process of attempting to calculate Longitude using the stars and moon. If Britain had not found how to work out Longitude, would have France eventually found the solution through their method?

After that they interviewed John Harrison who spoke about how Captain Cook took the K1 (a copy of the H4) on board and navigated successfully aided by this pocket watch from the tropics to the Antarctic. 

John Harrison is sat in front of the Queens's House for filming with
Greenwich Royal Observatory in the background

Harrison also spoke about the poor treatment of himself on behalf of the board of Longitude as he never received his prize money, even after meeting their requirements for the prize. It was only after his son appealing to King George III that he finally received part of what was rightfully his.

The New Longitude Prize

The groups took turns recording each other asking what they wanted the new Longitude prize (worth £10 million) to be for and why. They were given a list and had to choose from:

• Flight - How can we fly without damaging the environment?
• Food - How can we ensure everyone has nutritious sustainable food?
• Antibiotics - How can we prevent the rise of resistance to antibiotics?
• Paralysis - How can we restore movement to those with paralysis?
• Water - How can we ensure everyone has access to safe and clean water?
• Dementia - How can we help people with dementia to live independently for longer?

Practising Interview Techniques

Matt and Sav from digital works showed them how to conduct an interview so that the children are prepared for when they go to the National Maritime Museum and the Greenwich observatory on Tuesday and Wednesday. 

Learning How To Make Interviews Look Good and Using Equipment

Learning how to make an interview look good

The equipment is explained

 How to use lighting

   Looking on as the camera is explained: the children learn
how to use the camera best for when they film their interviews.