BRINGING MUSEUMS TO SCHOOLS

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 120, 14 February 1940, Page 7

BRINGING MUSEUMS TO SCHOOLS

Educational Service CASE EXHIBITS FOR CIRCULATION Examples of the work of the museums’ educational service to schools are shown in the education section of the Government Court at the Exhibition. It comprises a number of sample eases of the types circulated by the museum education officers among the schools of the Dominion. Two years or more ago the service was started with the assistance of Carnegie Corporation grants. Today it is carried on by education officers attached to the Dominion Museum, Wellington. the Auckland War Memorial Museum, and the Canterbury and Otago Museums. The cases measure about two feet by 18 incites, and are six inches deep. Wooden doors which close over the glass face to protect it in transport also serve to caz'ry photographs and descriptions of the contents. Four such cases are exhibited. The Otago Museum’s case illustrates the potter’s art. Miniature earthenware vases are shown in various stages of manufacture —first the clay, then the rough shape, the finished shape before and after its first firing, and finally the glazed product. An art earthenware candlestick, and temperature cones which indicate the heat of the kiln, complete the exhibit. The story of pottery, and a picture of a potter at work, are mounted on the doors. Australian Blacks. Auckland has contributed a case dealing with the Australian blacks. It contains Hint knives and axes, and a primitive hammer, a boomerang, and a string girdle, which is the complete suit of clothing of an aboriginal gentleman. A striking photograph of a black witli shield and spear, and an account of their mode of life, completes the exhibit. From Christchurch comes a case containing a tui and a bellbird, mounted among beautifully modelled native foliage, principally yellow kowhai. The descriptive material, photographs of nests, eggs and young birds, and the stuffed specimens, are calculated to teach youngsters to discriminate between two native birds often confused by the ignorant. Their respective calls, ns recorded by Johannes C. Andersen, Wellington, are also set out. The Wellington case is on the subject of silk. It shows the development of the silkworm from egg to fullygrown caterpillar, pupa, and adult moth. The cocoons in which flic pupal stage is passed, and from which the valuable silk is unwound, are also shown, and finally a hank of raw silk, beautifully white and glistening. The fat caterpillars browsing on mulberry leaves are so lifelike that it is a shock to learn that both grubs and leaves are synthetic, products of the skilled fingers of the museum officers. Circulation to Schools. These cases are typical of those circulated to schools under the scheme now operating in the Dominion. They are considered by education authorities to be of great value in stimulating the children’s interest in the subjects concerned, specially when presented in conjunction with a talk or lesson by the schoolmaster. Where schools are too distant for pupils to visit the museum, they bring the museum to the schools, and to those that do visit the museums they provide an additional and helpful service.