- September 23, 2020 - Insectarium : Education
The Insectarium is undergoing a complete metamorphosis! Entomologists, scientific communicators and professionals of every stripe are working behind the scenes to build the museum of tomorrow. To keep you in the loop, we’re revealing three of the education team’s secrets straight from our creative laboratory.
1. New features by the thousand!
The transformation of the Insectarium is gigantic: a brand new museum circuit consisting of unusual spaces, over 5,000 specimens and a remarkable diversity of insects living free. No need to point out that the challenge is enormous!
For the education team, the first thing has been to document the museum’s species and principal themes. For example, the new exhibitions will be presenting some of the world’s biggest insects. To get to know them better, we’ve pored over hundreds of scientific publications about giant insects such as the Goliath beetle.
Starting with our special favorites, we write topical articles for the average reader. Strange antennas, disproportionate legs and exceptional mandibles are some of the subjects that our research has focused on.
Eventually the scientific interpreters will learn the content so that they can share it with you. It’s a little as though we were trying to anticipate your questions…and are working hard to answer them!
2. The programming is also being transformed
The education team’s adventure doesn’t stop there. To design innovative activities, we have to test unfamiliar approaches. Our mission: establish a positive connection between people and insects. And in our creation laboratory, everything’s possible!
Here are a few examples of experimental activities that, while they won’t be presented as such in the new museum, will have served as prototypes. To explain the anatomy of milkweed, the monarch butterfly’s host plant, we devised a presentation involving ice cream, sorbet and colored candies! For another exercise we fashioned models of hairy insects from plant materials collected in the Jardin botanique.
In short, all our original (and sometimes delicious) tests are the starting point for the Insectarium’s future programming.
3. Visitors are part of our team!
At the center of our concerns, visitors play an essential role. After all, this new museum is for you. So we put our heart and soul into it! Because in the end, in a world undergoing dramatic upheavals, protecting insects can only happen through education and enjoyment.
See you soon!
