How to Visit The Museum

It is important that the School, the directors and teachers assume the responsibility of integrating the Museum into the Institutional Educational Project. visit the museum

To the extent that this relationship is consolidated, society and the educational community may accept and value the role played by the Museum in the integral formation of the individual and in the rescue of national identity. It is up to the members of the School to become a cultural focus that reverts in society.

The visit to the Museum is not intended to specialize visitors in a certain subject, but to convey to the child the individual or collective capacity to register and develop knowledge with a view to using it in new contexts.

The Museum is approached with an active and experiential methodology that avoids long journeys and excess content. The tour is limited and predetermined. The Museum must be discovered and questioned and not heard what is written in the books. The child should be guided not only to learn but, above all, to stimulate his emotional components.

From this point of view, the approach to the Museum can be done from two perspectives:

• Visit to a certain museum room
• Selection of a subject, objects, animals, documents, etc.

The visit to the Museum requires careful planning, to obtain the best benefit and requires the participation of a human team willing to progress culturally. When planning it, consider the activities you will be doing before, during and after the visit:

• Make an exploratory visit to the Museum in order to familiarize yourself with the place: costs, availability of teaching material, physical, human resources, procedures to request the visit, requirements, rules, schedule, etc.
• If the Museum has an educational section, establish contact through it in order to take advantage of the educational aids offered by the institution. Plan, together with the person in charge of educational services or the guide staff, the visit and the complementary activities that you consider convenient.
• Define the theme, objectives and activities that you plan to develop before, during and after the visit. Take into account the interests of the students and involve them in the planning of the visit so that from their context they can boost their own participation.
• To make the visit, divide the courses into subgroups of 15 to 20 children each accompanied by a responsible adult. Distribute the Museum’s content by theme or by rooms. This prevents agglomeration in the showcases.
• Request the collaboration of professors, parents and other members of the educational community such as social service program graduates, health guards, scouts, ecological walkers, Civil Defense volunteers or Museum guides, to conform small groups. Both teachers and guides should know in advance the objectives and pedagogical activities proposed by the coordinating teacher in order to make their support effective.

• The school visit to the Museum, and other outings in the classroom, must be contemplated in the Institutional Educational Project and support the curricular areas according to objectives.

The teacher must avoid that the exit is meaningless and only “go out.”

• Include in the visit the approach and recognition of the environment where the Museum is located. This allows you to integrate various disciplines and activities. Relate the most significant elements during the route.
• If the Museum building is part of the national heritage, is an architectural jewel or provides relevant historical information, highlight this aspect and involve it within the visit.
• Prepare and motivate your students before visiting the Museum. Include in this stage the presentation of audiovisuals, exhibitions, billboards, etc.
• Consider the visit to the Museum as a novelty and a learning situation different from the traditional classroom scheme. It represents putting the group in touch with direct experiences. During the visit, give priority to the development of the senses: sight, touch and smell. Observing and questioning the object is the starting point to generate new knowledge and develop curiosity in the child.
• Center the activities on the object and not on the written information. If a teacher-student-text relationship is established in the class, in the Museum the relationship is student-object-discovery. Lean on unusual and novel objects or unexpectedly and not on traditional texts. Allow the children to arrive at a proper and thoughtful interpretation of the exhibits. Exalt discovery capabilities.
• At the Museum, direct the child to establish direct communication with the object. Let him observe, analyze and admire him, awakening in him an emotional feeling. Look more for aesthetic development than intellectual development.
• Define the basic budget of resources necessary to carry out the visit: entrance tickets, transportation, refreshments, first aid, parking, teaching materials, photocopies, communications, etc.

Consider the following strategies for budget achievement:

Own resources: are those allocated in the overall budget of the School.

Management resources: they are those that result from the organized and dynamic action of the School and the community before other organizations.

And the resources of self-management: they are those that arise from the educational community itself through the organization of events such as cultural conferences, bazaars, donations and others.

• Once in the classroom, integrate and analyze the experiences and draw conclusions together with your students. This last stage is intended to give coherence to the information collected, integrate knowledge and allow the achievement of learning objectives.

Among the activities of this phase are:

1. Comment on group impressions about the visit.
2. Provide a frame of reference within which the collected data acquire meaning.
3. Seek the application of information to specific situations or problems.
4. Conduct recreational workshops in accordance with the objectives of the activity.

In summary, through the visit allow the achievement of the following objectives:

1. Enhance the ability to discover, observe and describe objects, animals, plants, documents, real estate and others.
2. Stimulate the development of the emotional and creative components of the child; by allowing the object to be discovered not only from its scientific content; but also aesthetic through recreation and subjective expression.
3. Develop objective personal interpretation by counteracting the information that is available and the reality offered.