The educational exhibition hall of Protistology, which opened in 2011 at the Museo di Storia Naturale e del Territorio di Pisa and actually the first in Italy, is regularly included in the teaching offer, scheduled annually by the museum itself. During the year, about 15 classes of children school of the Pisa’s district for a total of about 350 students have attended the educational courses related to the hall and entitled “Microcosm of a water drop” for the Primary School, and “Discovering the eukaryotic microorganisms” for the Secondary School. The educational visits, lasting about an hour and a half each, were coordinated by the Museum staff trained and generally composed of young graduates in Biological Sciences or Natural Sciences. Each educational trail was organized in such a way as to provide, in an appropriate language to the level of acquisition to the interested users, the necessary tools to develop the scientific and application knowledge on the importance of protists in various fields, from the environment to the health. In satisfaction questionnaires distributed to the completion of the courses, participating teachers have expressed very favorable opinions regarding to the discussion of the topics, the clarity of objectives consistent with the contents, the acquisition of new knowledge and the professionalism of the speakers. The answers of the students involved have confirmed that it is widespread in children's interest to work experimentally, suggesting the need to include new contents, such as the preparation of slides for observation under the optical microscope and the DNA extraction from protist cultures. The museum hall of Protistology was also involved in various initiatives of scientific-informative character, such as “II Congresso La ricerca scientifica in Museo, quale la realtà toscana?”, “Amico museo 2012”, “Calci …in festa 2012”, “Campi solari CUS Pisa”, “Pianeta Galileo 2012”.
The hall of Protistology at the Museo di Storia Naturale e del Territorio di Pisa: developments and correlated initiatives.
DI GIUSEPPE, GRAZIANO
2012-01-01
Abstract
The educational exhibition hall of Protistology, which opened in 2011 at the Museo di Storia Naturale e del Territorio di Pisa and actually the first in Italy, is regularly included in the teaching offer, scheduled annually by the museum itself. During the year, about 15 classes of children school of the Pisa’s district for a total of about 350 students have attended the educational courses related to the hall and entitled “Microcosm of a water drop” for the Primary School, and “Discovering the eukaryotic microorganisms” for the Secondary School. The educational visits, lasting about an hour and a half each, were coordinated by the Museum staff trained and generally composed of young graduates in Biological Sciences or Natural Sciences. Each educational trail was organized in such a way as to provide, in an appropriate language to the level of acquisition to the interested users, the necessary tools to develop the scientific and application knowledge on the importance of protists in various fields, from the environment to the health. In satisfaction questionnaires distributed to the completion of the courses, participating teachers have expressed very favorable opinions regarding to the discussion of the topics, the clarity of objectives consistent with the contents, the acquisition of new knowledge and the professionalism of the speakers. The answers of the students involved have confirmed that it is widespread in children's interest to work experimentally, suggesting the need to include new contents, such as the preparation of slides for observation under the optical microscope and the DNA extraction from protist cultures. The museum hall of Protistology was also involved in various initiatives of scientific-informative character, such as “II Congresso La ricerca scientifica in Museo, quale la realtà toscana?”, “Amico museo 2012”, “Calci …in festa 2012”, “Campi solari CUS Pisa”, “Pianeta Galileo 2012”.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
