scholarly journals DESCRIBING THE EDUCATIONAL ROLE OF NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUMS: AN ANALYSIS TOOL FOR PRE-SERVICE AND IN-SERVICE TEACHERS

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Eirini Gkouskou ◽  
Dimitrios Koliopoulos
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Formal Education ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Natural History Museum ◽  
Analysis Tool ◽  
Natural History Museums ◽  
History Museum ◽  
History Museums ◽  
Educational Role

This study presents a tool for description and potential analysis of the educational role of the Science and Technology museum. This tool has been constructed from the point of view of formal education and it is proposed as a framework for the approach of the science/technology museum from the teachers and education administrators. More specifically, the tool is, at first, described in terms of structure, content and functionality and, afterwards, examples are provided for cases of international, national and local natural history museums (Natural History Museum in Paris, Goulandris Natural History Museum in Athens and University of Patras Zoology Museum accordingly). Finally, there is a discussion regarding the suitability of this tool to inform, instruct and train future and in-service teachers in aspects of museum education. <p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0720/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

scholarly journals The Classic: The natural history museum

1970 ◽  
pp. 147
Author(s):  
Albert Eide Parr
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Natural Populations ◽  
Natural History Museum ◽  
Natural History Museums ◽  
History Museum ◽  
Main Research ◽  
Human Thought ◽  
History Museums ◽  
Dead Material

1939: «- if we do recognize that one of the main research missions of a natural history museum lies in the ecological types of investigation, we must obviously also admit the perfect appropriateness of handling live, as well as dead material, in the museum to the extent that the observations on the living individuals may tend to confirm or to explain the conclusions arrived at by the study of the preserved samples of natural populations.» 1950: «The side of nature which concerns society most of all is not undisturbed nature, but nature as the environment of man, and that is the field in which the educational efforts of the natural history museums could make their greatest contribution to human thought, welfare, and progress today.» 1980: «- it seems clear that museums, at least in the larger cities, may be more important as independently explorable additions to the environment itself than in the simple role of didactic interpreters of experiences gained from other sources.» 

Juan Cristóbal Gundlach's contributions to the knowledge of Puerto Rican birds and his influence on the development of natural history in Puerto Rico

2014 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 251-269 ◽  
Author(s):  
James W. Wiley ◽  
Sylke Frahnert ◽  
Rafaela Aguilera Román ◽  
Pascal Eckhoff
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Puerto Rico ◽  
Natural History ◽  
Puerto Rican ◽  
Higher Education Institutions ◽  
Natural History Museum ◽  
Natural History Museums ◽  
History Museum ◽  
History Museums ◽  
German Naturalist

The German naturalist, Juan Cristóbal Gundlach (1810–1896), resided in Cuba for the last 57 years of his life, except for two expeditions to Puerto Rico in 1873 and 1875–1876, when he explored the southwestern, western, and northeastern regions. Gundlach made representative collections of the island's fauna, which formed the nucleus of the first natural history museum in Puerto Rico. He substantially increased the number of species known from the island, and was the first naturalist to make meticulous observations and produce detailed reports of the island's natural history. Gundlach greatly influenced other naturalists in the island, so that a period of concerted advancement in knowledge of natural history occurred in the 1870s. That development coincided with the establishment of the first higher education institutions in the island, including the first natural history museum. The natural history museums eventually closed, and only a few of their specimens were passed to other institutions, including foreign museums. None of Gundlach's and few of his contemporaries’ specimens have survived in Puerto Rico.

scholarly journals Science and the Language of Natural History Museum Architecture: Problems of Interpretation

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 342-361
Author(s):  
John Robert Holmes
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Natural History Museum ◽  
Natural History Museums ◽  
History Museum ◽  
Museum Architecture ◽  
History Museums ◽  
Architectural Styles ◽  
Working Together ◽  
Architectural Language ◽  
Scientific Ideas

The historicist styles and decorative schemas of natural history museums built from the 1850s to the 1930s provide a unique opportunity to study the architectural expression of scientific ideas. At the same time, the significance of individual buildings varies widely. Drawing on examples from Britain, Ireland, Canada and continental Europe, this article explores three specific problems that arise in the interpretation of the architectural language of natural history museums. Firstly, the same motifs can convey very different meanings in different places. Secondly, the same governing idea can be communicated through different architectural styles which in turn inflect the idea itself. Finally, it is often hard to reconstruct the exact roles of the different actors in creating a museum building. The most complex museums, and the most challenging and rewarding to analyse, are those with the greatest number of scientists and artists working together to create them.

scholarly journals Java Man and the Politics of Natural History

2021 ◽  
Vol 177 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 290-311
Author(s):  
Caroline Drieënhuizen ◽  
Fenneke Sysling
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Homo Erectus ◽  
Knowledge Systems ◽  
Natural History Museums ◽  
History Museum ◽  
History Museums ◽  
Geological Information

Abstract Natural history museums have long escaped postcolonial or decolonial scrutiny; their specimens were and are usually presented as part of the natural world, containing only biological or geological information. However, their collections, like those of other museums, are rooted in colonial practices and thinking. In this article, we sketch a political and decolonial biography of ‘Java Man’, the fossilized remains of a Homo erectus specimen, housed in Naturalis, the Natural History Museum, in the Netherlands. We describe the context of Dutch colonialism and the role of indigenous knowledge and activity in the discovery of Java Man. We also follow Java Man to the Netherlands, where it became a contested specimen and part of a discussion about repatriation. This article argues that the fossils of Java Man and their meanings are products of ‘creolized’ knowledge systems produced by Empire and sites of competing national and disciplinary histories and identities.

Basics of the external communication of State Natural History Museum NAS of Ukraine

2018 ◽  
pp. 3-8
Author(s):  
Arkhipova Kh. ◽  
Danylyuk K.
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Communication Strategies ◽  
Natural History Museum ◽  
Natural History Museums ◽  
History Museum ◽  
External Communication ◽  
History Museums ◽  
The World

The main tendencies of development of communication strategies of the leading natural history museums of the world are considered. Based on the Strategy for the Development of State Natural History Museum NAS of Ukraine, the main goals, tasks and channels of communication with the main segments of the audience of the museum are developed.

NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUMS AS A SPACE OF SCIENCE EDUCATION IN THE KNOWLEDGE-BASED SOCIETY

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Potyrala ◽  
◽  
Karolina Czerwiec ◽  
Renata Stasko ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Science Education ◽  
Natural History ◽  
Informal Education ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Natural History Museum ◽  
Natural History Museums ◽  
History Museum ◽  
Knowledge Based ◽  
History Museums ◽  
Starting Point

The museum activity is more and more often aimed at integration with local communities, organization of scientific debates and intercultural dialogue, expansion of social network and framework for communication and mediation of scientific issues. Museums generate learning potential and create a social culture. The aim of the research was to diagnose the viability of natural history museums as the spaces of open training and increasing social participation in education for balanced development. Furthermore, it examined the possibility to create a strong interaction between schools at all levels and institutions of informal education, exchange of experience in the field of educational projects and the development of cooperation principles to strengthen the university-school-natural history museum relations. In the research conducted in the years 2016-2017 participated 110 students of teaching specialization in various fields of studies. The results of the research are connected with students’ attitudes towards new role of museums as institutions popularizing knowledge and sharing knowledge. The outcomes enable the diagnosis in terms of preparing young people to pursue participatory activities for the local community and may be the starting point for the development of proposals of educational solutions increasing students’ awareness in the field of natural history museums’ educational potential. Keywords: knowledge-based society, natural history museum, science education.

scholarly journals Female aristocrats in the natural history world before the establishment of the Geological Society of London

2020 ◽  
pp. SP506-2019-164
Author(s):  
Consuelo Sendino ◽  
Julian Porter
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Natural History Museum ◽  
Geological Samples ◽  
Natural History Museums ◽  
History Museum ◽  
Geological Society ◽  
History Museums ◽  
Eighteenth And Nineteenth Centuries

AbstractA fascination with natural history does not recognize class, as is shown through the activities of female aristocrats who, during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, contributed significantly by increasing the number of collections at natural history museums. These women were not members of the Geological Society of London because, at that time, women were not even allowed to be members, but they still left their impressive legacy in museums. This paper will focus on three women who made extensive collections that are now incorporated into British museums. The first of these, the Duchess of Portland, made one of the finest collections in England and, possibly, the best collection of shells and fossils in Europe of her time, which was later acquired by the Natural History Museum, London. She was followed by the Countess of Aylesford who made one of the most important mineral collections of her time, which is now at the Natural History Museum, London. Finally, Baroness Brassey collected geological samples during her trips that were used to establish the Brassey Institute in Hastings. These three women used their own income and influence to build collections.

The Scientific Value of Natural History Museum Collections: The Concept of Completeness

2000 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 109-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce S. Lieberman ◽  
Roger L. Kaesler
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Fossil Record ◽  
The United States ◽  
Natural History Museum ◽  
Museum Collections ◽  
Natural History Museums ◽  
History Museum ◽  
History Museums ◽  
Data Points ◽  
Scientific Value

NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUMS are one of the greatest resources available to paleontologists and evolutionary biologists. Through their exhibits, they have inspired generations of children to become paleontologists, and they also serve as a tremendous repository of realized and potential data. If invertebrate fossils can be thought of as individual data points, in the United States alone there are perhaps 100 million data points. Yet, in spite of this, museums, like other sources of data, have their shortcomings. What are these short comings, and how severe are they? Are they so severe as to obviate the scientific value of the collections of fossils held by natural history museums? It is this topic that we address herein.There is a useful analogy between the debate about the usefulness of natural history museum collections and the debate about the completeness of the fossil record. Are natural history museums representative of the fossil record, and are they complete enough to be adequate for research? We intend to pursue the analogy between the fossil record and natural history museums as we develop our ideas about paleontological collections. Just as numerous studies have concluded that the fossil record, albeit incomplete, is adequate to answer a wide variety of scientific questions, so too shall we argue that the data preserved in natural history museums are complete enough and adequate to answer a wide variety of important research questions in paleontology.

“Show Meets Science:” How Hagenbeck’s “Human Zoos” Inspired Ethnographic Science and Its Museum Presentation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefanie Jovanovic-Kruspel
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Natural History Museum ◽  
History Museum ◽  
Exhibition Hall ◽  
Complex Relation

This chapter attempts to explain the role of “human zoos” in the emergence of scientific ethnography and its display in museums by examining the case of the private portfolio of the first director of the Natural History Museum Vienna, Ferdinand von Hochstetter. This vast portfolio includes photographs of the first Völkerschauen (“peoples’ exhibitions”) by Carl Hagenbeck (1844–1913). Some of the pictures of the Greenland Inuit appear to have been the templates for at least two sculptures of “native types” that the Austrian sculptor Viktor Tilgner used for his Inuit caryatids in the exhibition hall. This discovery sheds new light on the complex relation between “human zoos” and early ethnographic science.

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