Interactive Museum Experiences

Interactive Museum Experiences

“I am Richard Nixon, president from 1969 to 1974. I was a lawyer and studied at Duke University Law. I died in 1994,” says Marjorie Cozzens, age 8 (Dooley, 2003, p. F4).

The third grade class at Karigon Elementary School, of which Marjorie is a member, were preparing for the opening of their Presidential Wax Museum on Friday, March 7, 2003.

Marjorie’s third grade teacher, Renee Bortolini has her class choose a president, learn about them, and on Friday, the students will put their hard work together to create their very own wax museum. The wax museum serves a purpose to help the students learn through an interactive museum experience. Hands on learning helps the students to experience the lesson being taught as well as helping them to apply class instruction to real world applications. Many students are more apt to receive and understand information through visual techniques. Interactive museums can provide teachers with classes and seminars, which help them to incorporate a field trip, plus the pre- and post-work, into an acceptable curriculum. Certain techniques are also beneficial for museums to follow when they are setting up special exhibits. Overall, interactive museum experiences are beneficial to both student and teacher.

Techniques used in developing interactive museums

Many different techniques are used to develop a children’s interactive museum. Physical objects, including the exhibits and activities should be scaled down to size and should also be built with the mental capacity of elementary school children in mind. Exhibits should not be difficult to understand, and activities should be easy to follow.

Multiple items of interest included into one exhibit tend to be too difficult for the youth. When constructing an exhibit centered around a youthful audience, one item of interest should be incorporated into the exhibit so that the youth are able to understand and can follow the exhibit. Organization should also be brought into consideration, so that the student can interpret the exhibit successfully. Finally, these interactive exhibits and activities may be run by the public school district and can even be staffed by teachers (Burcaw, 1997).

Within the museum, certain exhibits should be produced to help stimulate the learning abilities of younger children. A city zoo provided the community with an interactive exhibit by building two identical monkey islands side by side.