博物馆生态景观陈列中仿真植物制作的细节处理

生态景观陈列是博物馆陈列中的一种重要的陈列形式,特别是在自然科学类博物馆的陈列中,通常都被作为陈列的中心亮点呈现给观众。在各式各样的生态景观陈列中,除了展现极地冰雪世界等少数特殊环境的生态景观陈列外,绝大多数的生态景观陈列中都少不了一种非常重要的组成元素——仿真植物。     

Flexible Interventions to Increase Family Engagement at Natural History Museum Dioramas

A research/practice collaboration designed, implemented, and tested strategies to facilitate family engagement with natural history dioramas. Across a series of design studies, 295 family groups with at least one adult and one child aged 4–18 were observed at a wildlife diorama of deer in their natural habitat. Each mini‐study tested a different intervention intended to encourage families to engage more deeply with the diorama. Compared to a baseline condition where families used the original diorama with no intervention, findings suggested that all interventions supported increased engagement, but that some interventions were more successful at engaging younger children, increasing conversations about biodiversity and ecosystems issues, or in developing science skills such as observation and classification. We make recommendations for supporting family learning at dioramas and also reflect upon how our research/practice partnership was vital to the work.     

Museum Evaluation without Borders: Four Imperatives for Making Museum Evaluation More Relevant,Credible, and Useful

Abstract In this article, I invite readers to think outside of evaluation’s current boundaries and to see the deep connectedness between what museums hope to achieve and how we evaluate the extent to which these aspirations may be realized. To do this, I present four imperatives for making museum evaluation more relevant, credible, and useful: 1) Link program activities with intended outcomes and hoped‐for impact. 2) Take a systems‐oriented evaluation approach. 3) Use affirmative data collection approaches based on assets and strengths. 4) Engage in courageous conversations.     

Dioramas as Depictions of Reality and Opportunities for Learning in Biology

Abstract A diorama is a careful positioning of a number of museum objects in a naturalistic setting. While expensive to construct, dioramas offer tremendous potential as educational tools. The education literature on dioramas, while growing, is still slight. Here we focus on dioramas as sites for learning science, specifically biology. We examine the extent to which dioramas reflect or construct reality and the effect on visitors. We suggest that a useful perspective can be to see dioramas as telling stories. Visitors respond well to stories and bring their own experiences, hopes, and fears to them. But to maximize the educational impact of dioramas, the stories they tell need to be constructed with some care. Younger visitors, for example, can benefit from scaffolding, an approach often used when introducing children to literature that is at the upper end of, or beyond, their present unaided capabilities.     

How Families Use Questions at Dioramas: Ideas for Exhibit Design

This paper explores the role of questioning in scientific meaning‐making as families talk, look and gesture in front of realistic and artful dioramas at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. The focus is on the ways questioning can either enable movement towards scientific understanding or hinder such progress. The socio‐cultural framework of this research emphasizes Vygotsky's interpretation of the zone of proximal development (zpd). Questions are viewed as tools for mediation in the zpd. This paper examines three families' dialogues, excerpted from a larger study of collaborative sense‐making among family groups in a natural history museum. It seeks to understand how collaborative dialogue meshes everyday understandings with canonical science, in this case through the use of questions.     

A Simple Water-Circulator for Museum Use

Abstract

Egyptian blue has been identified positively in a Roman mediaeval fresco of the lower church of San Clemente. The date around the middle of the ninth century A.D. of the mural painting extends by five centuries the previously known period of use of this famous pigment.     

关于博物馆、纪实馆情景再现的实践与思考

陈列展览和群众教育一直是博物馆、纪念馆的重要职能,其形式多样、手法各一,成为传统研究和探讨的重心。情景再现是文博工作者适应社会发展和观众需求创作出来的,也是博物馆、纪念馆进入最好发展时期的一个标志,其成熟与发展赋予了作为爱国主义教育基地的博物馆、纪念馆崭新的生命力。     

Visitor Meaning‐Making at Grand Canyon's Tusayan Museum and Ruin

Abstract Meaning‐making describes a process by which visitors transform museum experiences into new knowledge and memories. Meaning‐making is influenced by visitors' leisure motivations, prior knowledge, socio‐cultural context brought to the experience, personally‐guided interpretation, and events since the visit. In this study, visitors' long‐term recollections included contextual references to how and why they remembered what they experienced. Forty visitors were interviewed by telephone six months after attending a Native American interpretive program at Grand Canyon National Park's Tusayan Museum. Two patterns associated with a constructivist view of meaning‐making were discerned: a) visitors' integration of indoor and outdoor exhibits and b) visitors' comparisons of modern family and community with a more ancient culture. The presence of contextual indicators within visitor recall suggests that new knowledge may be constructed from factors carried forth from the meaning‐making process. Evidence within the data suggests that exhibits made more relevant to visitors' socio‐cultural identity may enhance on‐site experiences.     

A Narrative History Museum

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) opened in April 1993 in Washington, DC, to wide critical and popular acclaim. It is a narrative rather than a collection-based museum in that its displays are based on facts rather than things. The facts of the Holocaust are presented objectively. At the same time, the museum employs design elements that involve visitors in the narrative and enable them to understand it and the events' universal implications.     

一个称职的博物馆工作者——朱家溍先生在故宫

故宫博物院名专家朱家溍先生因病于2003年9月29日辞世，本刊特约朱先生的女公子朱传荣撰写此，以志纪念。     

Museums,Meaning Making,and Memories: The Need for Museum Programs for People with Dementia and Their Caregivers

Abstract At times considered an unreachable audience, people with dementia have found a wealth of positive and meaningful experiences in museum settings. Making a case for the creation of museum programs for people with dementia and their caregivers, this article describes the experience of dementia both for those diagnosed with the disease and for those providing care; highlights several existing museum programs for people with dementia; and offers suggestions for future programming options.     

Making Meaning on the Mall: The Smithsonian Folklife Festival as a Constructivist Museum

George Hein, museum education theorist, asserts that there are five qualities a “constructivist exhibition” must have (1998, 35). The authors, assembling observations of visitor engagement and qualitative data from the 2013 Smithsonian Folklife Festival, compare the event to Hein's constructivist exhibition criteria, to assess whether the Festival allowed visitors to “make meaning,” and to see whether visitor meaning‐making meshed with the goals of the curators. The answers have the potential to help improve visitor experiences and learning outcomes at museums and other curated cultural events.     

对网上博物馆的一点看法

博物馆是对物送行收藏．保护和研究，以及对大众进行社会教育的一个场所，传统博物馆和刚刚兴起的网上博物馆都面临着因始终扮演单向的“施教”而缺乏互动性、针对性，越来越乏人问津的困境，本从网上博物馆的改革着手，提出对博物馆困境的一些解决方案。