The first week back to class after spring break, I visited the Natural History Museum with my ceramics class. Outside of the museum there is a giant statue of two dinosaurs with flowers all around. Upon entering the museum, one can see into the gift shop while standing in line to get a ticket. This is very strategically placed as the gift shop will bring in a lot of money and start the kids off with excitement. Immediately past the ticket podium, the skeletons of the two dinosaurs portrayed in the statue outside are on display in the same towering way. Once inside, my class went up the stairs past some weird Africa things and walked around a display of variously sized sea shells. Then we walked up another stair case and took a left into the ancient ceramic/stone/metal artifact room. The room was dimply lit and appropriately decorated. We saw these amazing pieces which had been crafted without tools or kilns thousands of years ago. A woman gave us a presentation about how many of the ceramic vessels made sound. They acted as whistles. There was also a projector/computer in the room that you could pull up images on of which ever piece you wanted to look at more closely from all angles. The museum was separated by exhibits and had some interesting things in it, however it did not seem very hands on.
This museum sounds very nice. While I do enjoy hands-on activities, sometimes a simple and quiet exhibit does the job just fine. Do you have any idea what your own museum exhibit is going to be about?
ReplyDeleteive never been a huge hands on museum proponent. i myself dont like it because it seems to me that the hands on stuff is dirty due to the large volume of people that touch it. and since i dont like germs i tend to avoid those sorts of exhibits. though hands on exhibits due draw lots of kids
ReplyDeleteYes, it is indeed true that germs can always be a problem, but that is not typically a thing that children are concerned with. Parents, on the other hand, may be comforted to learn that a specific museum has very good cleaning habits. This might improve parentss willingness to bring thier children to such places.
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