The Evolution of Education at the Canadian Museum of Nature

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Remember the first time you visited a museum? For many, it was as a school kid, ushered along with classmates by a teacher or guide. Just as museum exhibits have become more sophisticated over the years, so too have the ways in which museums interact with their visitors and serve schools.

This evolution has been seen at the Canadian Museum of Nature (CMN), Canada’s national natural history museum, which is enjoying its 150th anniversary this year. Contemporary topics such as climate change and genetics/genomics were not exactly museum “staples” 100 (or even 20) years ago, but these are now integrated into programs that introduce children to the diversity of nature.

So much has happened since 1856 when Parliament passed legislation to create a national museum out of the Geological Survey of Canada’s natural science and anthropological collections.

In 1903, Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier commissioned the design of a grand museum in Ottawa, with large gallery and exhibit spaces to present Canada’s growing collections of fossils, fine art, native artifacts, minerals, plants, animals and other exotic specimens. By 1912, the stately, castle-like Victoria Memorial Museum Building had opened its doors to the public, and schoolchildren were part of the crowds eager to see the many unearthed treasures.

Officially named the National Museum of Canada in 1927, the museum was later divided into two distinct branches: the National Museum of Natural Sciences and the National Museum of Man. The creation of the new Canadian Museum of Civilization in 1988, and move of the anthropological collections to Gatineau, Quebec, enabled the newly-renamed Canadian Museum of Nature to take over the whole building.

While the building itself has enjoyed a dynamic history (there are even rumours of a ghost...or two), so has the evolution of its educational programs. Says John Kubicek, CMN’s Assistant Manager of Community Services: “Where museum education used to consist of dispensing information, now a more participatory and interactive approach is favoured.”

Hands-on is the key. Workshops where you learn by doing science instead of just listening, interactive interpretive stations where you can use all your senses, a “Trading Post” amateur collector station...these are a far cry from the “transmission-style” education approaches of the past. Early in the museum’s history, children attended Saturday morning lectures.

“We don’t lecture as much as we used to because people don’t learn as well that way,” says Kubicek. Instead of an hour-long presentation, students participating in a school program are given tools, such as microscopes and maps, some instruction and their assignment. “We try to take them through the process of scientific discovery,” says Kubicek. “We’ve modified our school programs to reflect that.”

Technology, of course, has greatly assisted all museums in offering more exciting, engaging activities to their audiences. School programming at the Canadian Museum of Nature has ventured to new frontiers, including linking youth in Nunavut with Ottawa school kids through videoconferencing. Recently, the CMN received $20,000 from TELUS to pilot a videoconferencing initiative with the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board with the aim of expanding the program nationally in the future. After students have completed a lesson activity on a natural science discipline such as palaeontology, they will chat with a CMN researcher via videoconference.

Videoconferencing is an ideal way to offer education without the constraints of geographical boundaries. Students from across the country can take virtual “field trips” and interact with scientists working behind the scenes in their labs.

The Internet, of course, has made museum education more accessible and far-reaching. The CMN’s Web site, www.nature.ca, contains hundreds of pages of information on natural science, including a popular chapter called Natural History Notebooks. In 2003, the CMN launched a sub-site, www.nature.ca/genome, to accompany a national project on the science of genomics, The Geee in Genome. This site is filled with resources, activities, games, and summaries from cross-Canada educational forums, garnering much favourable feedback from Web users world-wide.

Educational forums offer a stimulating way to engage audiences in thought provoking and informative discussion. In 2003, the CMN presented a full-day forum for youth on hot topics relating to the science of genomics (the study of genes and their functions), including stem cell research and genetically modified organisms, to name a few. The forums were part of the national educational programming for The Geee in Genome, and similar programs have been repeated at other venues across the country.

Three-dimensional animation, produced in the CMN’s state-of-the-art 3D Centre, is a revolutionary way to bridge the gap between the public and museum collections. To complement a new school program, Hot Topics for Polar Bears, a grizzly bear skull and polar bear skull are being scanned in the 3D Centre. Animation created from these models will be part of an online activity where the user can rotate the skulls and compare features and measurements. A lesson plan, Polar Bears in the Classroom, where people can rotate a 3D skull animation, will be online by January.

Educators across the country can benefit from the CMN’s curriculum-based school programs. For example, the national educational project, Sila: Clue into Climate Change, offers downloadable presentations and lesson plans on three distinct themes related to climate change, all accessible through the Museum’s Web site, www.nature.ca/sila. An online resource on the Arctic Hare (nature.ca/ukaliq) provides lesson plans, activity sheets, games, crossword puzzles and more.

Similar curriculum-based materials will continue to be developed as the CMN inaugurates new galleries and projects this fall and in 2009. Visit the “For Educators section” of the CMN’s Web site at http://www.nature.ca/educators/educators_e.cfm.

Times have changed since the Museum first unveiled its collection of curious finds to wide-eyed children and grown-ups alike. And yet, while volumes of information can be obtained with a click of a mouse, the awe of staring at a towering dinosaur skeleton or peering at a dazzling display of minerals is a feeling that hasn’t altered with time.

The Geee in Genome was produced by the Canadian Museum of Nature and presented nationally by Genome Canada in partnership with the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

Sila: Clue in to Climate Change was produced by the Canadian Museum of Nature and The Centre for Traditional Knowledge with the financial support of the Government of Canada Climate Change Action Fund, Canadian International Development Agency and RBC Foundation.