歡迎你來動手－談博物館探索室的設置與其功能

A Chance for Exploring by Yourself-The Establishment and Functions of Museum Discovery Rooms

張美珍

《科技博物》 2卷5期 (1998/09) Pp. 34-45

https://doi.org/10.6432/TMR.199809.0034

並列摘要

The major mission of early museums was to collect and preserve artifacts with historical significance. This was equally true of natural history museums, history museums and art museums. The exhibition of these large collections was planned out by the museums' expert staff; in order to protect these rare, irreplaceable objects, they had to be placed in glass display cabinets, and museums even had to go so far as to employ curators to keep watch on them. However, with the passing of time the visiting public has come to demand more from museums, they are obliged to provide more adventurous exhibits to attract more visitors. The preservation of museum collections is still important, but many museums have established an area within the museum where visitors can touch and explore artifacts, experiencing them at first hand, so as to increase the learning effect and create greater enthusiasm for visiting the museum. Thus, the idea to establish 'discovery rooms' was born.
The discovery room concept emerged in the 1960s and 1970s largely from museums of natural history (Danilov, 1986). There are no clear records as to precisely which museum was the first to use the 'discovery idea', but the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. was certainly one of the pioneers. In 1968, Dr. Marsh posed the question: ”how can museum offer visitors an opportunity to touch and operate beautiful, real things?” In 1971 he made a proposal to establish a 'discovery room in the Museum'; in 1972 the project received support and funding from the National Science Foundation, and work began on the design of the discovery room. The proposal he wrote set front the purposes of the exhibitions:
1.To offer the museum visitors an opportunity to touch and operate a variety of replaceable and representative objects from the museum collections.
2.To give museum staff the opportunity to find out if guided handling of real objects leads the visitors to kinds of curiosity, learning, or insights about natural history that do not occur as readily in other kinds of learning situations (Marsh, 1987).
Of course, it was also hoped that the implementation of this project would attract more local residents to visit the museum. At the same time, the National Science Foundation hoped the discovery room to be a model for a new kind of learning experience in museums. The results turned out to be very satisfactory, and the success of the discovery room in National Museum of Natural History encouraged other museums throughout the world to imitate the project.
Although the discovery rooms in different museums may vary, the core objectives are similar. To provide visitors with an area where they can explore freely, with an emphasis on actual handling of exhibits, using stimulation of the senses and close observation to stimulate the visitors' curiosity, encouraging them to seek answers and obtain more knowledge, thereby leading to the museum's goal of extending public education.
Discovery rooms are usually established with children in mind. In recent years the establishment of children’s museums designed specifically to meet the needs of children has gradually become a worldwide trend. These new children's museums not only provide special areas where children can explore and discovery, they apply the concept of discovery to the design of the museum as a whole. The same is true of some new science museums. What these museums are chiefly concerned about is no longer 'objects' (objects on exhibit or in storage) but rather 'people' (the visitors to the museum). As a result, the spatial layout and exhibits planning within these museums is markedly different from that in a traditional museum.
In this article, besides discussing the establishments and functions of discovery rooms, there are some museums will be taken as examples to consider to principles behind the establishment and operation of their respective children's discovery areas.
Another sub-theme of this article is the design and management of an important resource within the discovery room-the discovery boxes. Discovery boxes have been developed out of and in line with the development of the discovery rooms; their design can be adapted to suit different themes and different contents. The discovery boxes provided for children by natural history museums are usually full of animal and plant specimens, fossils, feathers, minerals, skeletons and other objects that can be picked up and touched. The boxes usually also contain explanatory cards to provide the discoverers with extra information. In a science or technology museum a discovery box may contain mirrors, pulleys, musical instruments and easy-to-use tools. Special demonstration activities can be laid on in the discovery room; in addition, visitors are welcome to come and explore the contents of the room at any time to acquire first-hand experience. On the other hand, the discovery rooms in children's museums generally have no limited theme; the contents may include both scientific and non-scientific, cultural or artistic exhibits.
As more and more emphasis has come to be placed on the educational function of the museum, the establishment of discovery areas within museums has become a widespread trend, and the production of discovery boxes, ”learning kits” has become commonplace. Museums of all kinds, whether they be natural history, history, science, technology or art museums, are working actively on the development of discovery boxes and learning kits of all kinds. Besides aiming to expand and update the contents of the museum's discovery room and provide the boxes for the use of visitors to the museum, the boxes are also used for educational collaboration with schools and local communities. The range of application of the discovery box expands by loaning them out.
Fundamentally, both the establishment of discovery areas within a museum and the design of different types of discovery box for the use of visitors to the museum are expressions of the museum's involvement in community education. Since these concepts first appeared over twenty years ago, they have been applied successfully in museums worldwide. Some museums in Taiwan have experimented with these ideas, but it has often proved difficult to sustain the initial impetus. If the contents of a discovery room or discovery box are not updated and changed regularly, the original good intentions can be difficult to maintain! This is an area where ongoing research and effort is needed on the part of museum staff.