VISUAL EDUCATION IS BASIS OF MUSEUM SERVICE

New Zealand Listener, Volume 14, Issue 357, 26 April 1946, Page 16

VISUAL EDUCATION IS BASIS OF MUSEUM SERVICE

*i DA2: what kind of a bird is a harrier?" "Er as far as I know, son, it’s one who goes in for cross-country running. But I’m not too sure; better ask your mother." "Well, Dad, what’s a termite?" 1K nt % O it goes on-how, what and S why? Or at least it used to. To-day, parents need not be fountains of erudition to satisfy the youthful mind, for the Dominion Museum’s’ education service--

though working under difficulties-sup-plies school-children with answers to most of their questions. It can tell them all about the harrier — and show them a mounted specimen-explain the termite and its depredations, or describe how the Maoris used the adze. Countless subjects are dealt with in suitable. language and young inquirers may see and handle actual aaacnnate to their hearts’ delight. The other day a representative of The Listener called on the officer in charge, D. W. McKenzie, and asked how the service was working in these days when Museum space was at a premium. He told us, first of all, something of its history. The service, he said, started in 1938. Then, in 1942, the Dominion Museum was closed to the public-as it still is-and school visits stopped. The education officer was transferred to school-teaching and for a time only the

loan of exhibits to schools continued. In 1944, however, a teaching assistant was appointed to the Museum staff, and groups of school-children once again made regular visits. Exhibits Visit Children The service was started by the Carnegie Corporation to show what could be done in New Zealand both by taking the Museum to the children and the children to the Museum. Four educational officers were appointed in the four main Museum centres, and all had found, said Mr. McKenzie, that the best way to teach children was to let them get their noses right up against the exhibits. The Museum in each main centre has its own territory, the Dominion Museum covering schools from Nelson to Napier. Eight or ten Training College students work at the Museum for a six-weeks

period. Each specialises in one topic in which they take a group of ten children of the visiting class. We noticed that the subjects under study when we called were: How birds live; volcanoes in action; the life of the bee; a trip to the Great Barrier Reef; the Maori war canoe; Maori warfare and Maori handcrafts, t, Their Own Clubs For group-study, children are offered the opportunity of joining a "club," of which there are five, specialising in Maori life, insects, animals, life in the past, and life in other lands. A school party on arriving at the Museum at 9.0 am. breaks up into groups for club work. The first thing a child receives is a folder into. which he can put pictures and notes, and build up a booklet about the subject he has chosen. Club work takes about an hour, and is followed by a lecture. Every possible use is made of visual aids to extend the child’s experience. The Museum has three film-strip projectors, one silent 16-mm. motion-picture projector, and one 16-mm. sound projector, Studies ‘on beés and volcanoes, for example, are followed up by two soundfilms, and after the Great Barrier Reef talk comes a colour film of the Reef ahd the’ life on it.

.Formerly the Dominion Museum had a: rota of school visits. With the exception of two, all the Wellington schools took part, paying visits on a regular schedule. With the restricted space available in war-time, it was impossible to cope with the number of child visitors -ras many as 350.a day-and the system was abandoned. Now the schools are invited to book visits at times to suit them, and the demand is so great that very rarely is a period unfilled, even in the worst weather.

Branch Museums Formed After some years of experiment on the circulation of school museum exhibits to country schools, the Museum decided on decentralisation. Blocks of school show-cases were established at centres like Palmerston North, Nelson, Napier, Masterton and Wanganui-in some instances permanently, and in others till the local controlling authority wishes them replaced. Every now and then Museum officers inspect the cases and service them. Already between 20 and 30 cases have been sent to the Palmerston North Municipal Library, Nelson Institute and Museum, and the Hawke’s Bay Art Gallery and Museum at Napier. © The Wellington loan collection is available to schools on a library basis. At the beginning of each year schools receive a list and then apply for what they want, for three-week periods over the whole: term, A Public Service van takes out the exhibits and collects them, and exhibits are, of course, accompanied by leaflets and general information. On their return, the exhibits are re-sorted and sent ‘out again next day. |

Some of the show-cases are lit with electric strip-lighting, which can be connected with any light point in a classroom, Animal models are made out of plasticine, and are displayed against true-to-life backgrounds. Birds are generally the real thing, with a background of coloured photographs of regions they inhabit. These cases are made up by members of the Museum’s educational department. So now there is no need for Tommy to ask his parents how he can identify | a tadpole, or for little Mary to worry them about the diet of the vegetable sheep. The Museum supplies the answers.