Educating to the Scientific Method and Culture in the Italian University Museums

Elena Corradini

doi:10.13189/ujer.2020.081061

Abstract

The first Italian University Museums Network, constituted in 2012 for a first project, coordinated by Modena and Reggio Emilia, in 2015 started a second project, approved and financed by the Ministry of the University and Research (Online available from http://www.pomui.unimore.it), dedicated to orient the students to the scientific method and culture. The primary objective was to promote, starting from the historical-scientific and naturalistic heritage of the Network, among the students of the IV and V High School classes, the interest in scientific culture that still suffers not only in our country but worldwide. The Museums of the Network decided not only to propose to look at their scientific instruments and naturalistic specimens or to observe the reproduction of some natural phenomena, but with a hands-on approach for raising awareness, to provide to the students the tools in order to understand the cultural context in which the scientific instruments have been invented or realized, the specimens collected, the phenomena observed for the first time. The museums realized 56 experiential educational paths through the individuation and the sharing of operative methods, the adoption and the use of common languages and tools, with specific attention to the information technologies. These paths are dedicated to three principal themes, biodiversity, color and time, and seven subthemes and are published in the Network web portal (Online available from http://www.retemuseiuniversitari.unimore.it). After this experience, an University Museums Observatory will be useful to help the University Museums to become privileged places of the science communication, laboratories of participation, observatories on the past, present and future and able to promote and develop students' interests and skills for the scientific culture.

Highlights

The First and the Second Project of the Italian University Museums NetworkThe collections of the University Museums testify the historical development of scientific researches in different disciplines: the several collections are archives of knowledge, built during the centuries, that need a dynamic informative and articulated dimension through the use of new information technologies
38 collections and 9 botanical gardens are being enhanced, through their contextualization, in the ambit of 80 cultural paths dedicated to four themes [2]: 19 to the landscapes, 18 to the environments, 4 to the stories, 9 to the histories of scientific instrumentation, considered important for the interest that they can arouse in wide ranges of the audience, linking them to the history of the research (Online available from http://www.retemuseiuniversitari.unimore.it) [3]
Through the experiential educational paths realized for this project, the museums of the Network wanted to recover the relationship with the real and concrete objects or specimens of the museum’s collections and the researches developed over the time through them, in order to stimulate the student’s interest in the scientific method, retracing the historical path of the evolution of the different disciplines from the eighteenth century

Summary

Introduction

The collections of the University Museums testify the historical development of scientific researches in different disciplines: the several collections are archives of knowledge, built during the centuries, that need a dynamic informative and articulated dimension through the use of new information technologies. These considerations were the fundamental starting point for the creation, in 2012, of the first Network of Italian University Museums among 12. The objective of the Network was the valorization of their collections, through the use of the information technologies, in a web portal, thanks to a project approved and financed by the Ministry of the University and Research (Online available from http://www.pomui.unimore.it) [1]. They are linked to the territory of reference to stimulate the public to discover his peculiarity, to plan a visit, and to encourage conscious cultural tourism [6]

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