June 3 is World Fair Day. Museums in the capital have become an integral part of the educational process. “Evening Moscow” found out how classes are held in cultural institutions.
More than 700,000 schoolchildren and university students in Moscow participated in museum educational programs during the current academic year. Students visited 1.4 thousand Federal Museums and the City Museum, where they studied history, science, art and architecture and participated in interactive classes. One of the brightest projects is “Study Day at the Museum”.
More than 110,000 students participated this academic year. School subject lessons are held directly in museum spaces, said Ilya Gromov, chief methodologist at the Institute for the Development of Specialized Education at Moscow State Pedagogical University.
“Today, classes are held at 45 locations in the capital, and about 300 classes have been developed in various subjects, including programs for students in grades 1 to 11 and pre-professional fields, some of which are available online,” he noted.
Lessons were also held at the interactive Polytechnic Museum “Al-Jeddah’s Attic”. It was developed by primary school teachers Irina Pronina and Alla Chistyakova from Izmailovo School No. 1508.
“We were in this museum on a tour and realized that using the example of the exhibits here, we could conduct lessons on the Russian language, mathematics and the surrounding world,” said Irina Pronina.
Developing lessons in a museum is a complex and time-consuming process, but the results are definitely worth it. Before the eyes of schoolchildren is a model railway.
— One of the tasks is to find different geometric shapes in the model. “For example, the windows of the house are rectangular, and the bridge structure consists of triangles,” explains primary school teacher Alla Chistyakova.
A poster with text hangs nearby.
“You need to find a sentence and determine its components – the subject and the predicate,” adds teacher Irina Pronina.
Tasks also include finding an exhibit whose year of production is the oldest among those on display.
“The children really like these lessons,” says Irina. -They are tired of sitting at their desks. In addition, it is more interesting to study the world around you using real objects than using pictures from textbooks.
Lessons at the museum also affect schoolchildren’s motivation to study, and therefore their final results.
Direct speech
Anastasia Rakova, Deputy Mayor of Moscow for Social Development:
— Education in Moscow has not long been confined to the walls of schools. Children have the opportunity to study in museums, on city sites, and in cultural and scientific institutions, where knowledge becomes deeper and more meaningful – through direct interaction with history, science and art. We are also constantly developing a format in which school classes are held directly in museum spaces.