From the garden of the school to the Children’s Virtual Museum of Small Animals

Last month It happened with 6 classes in two primary schools of my town, Brescia, Italy: 3 of first grade and 3 of third  one.  We went  out with video and photo cameras, looking for
the “unexpected citizens” living next door, often unknown.  Children were detectives and explorers, with
the aim of discover, observe and shoot very close, with the technical help of
me and their teachers.

 Probably, during a little more than one hour, it began to change children’s perspective about:

-          the insects and the other small animals living there, become now surprising, with
astonishing particulars directly seen through the displays of the cameras as through
a very versatile magnifying glass;

-          the garden itself, that’s not only a place for running and shouting any more, but
also a very interesting field of investigation;

-          the technological devices, used not only to consume, or in the usual trivial way,
but as very powerful extensions of the senses and real tools for knowledge;

-          the school mates, not competitors now, but “colleagues”  in a cooperative job;

-          the adults, playing not the role of “teachers”, but rather of supporters, with
their techniques and experience, according to children’s work and curiosity  (but they were always ready to stop
everything and ask the respect of the rules if the young protagonists did not
do their duty: they were the adults,
anyhow!)

I let the use of video cameras in the hands of the teachers, though only one was good enough in shooting.  It takes only a few minutes, with the right approach, to begin to have good pieces of video, and many don’t imagine that! I
mainly took still pictures, but I tried also my first HD movies, using a photo
camera with video advanced functions, when we met the “wasps house”  and the “ant city”. Children were watching in
the large display and doing enthusiastic live commentaries.

Having some good photographs and interesting videos, we can now easily put them in the Internet, in the page-rooms of the Children’s Virtual Museum of Small Animals,
together with the images taken in other places and other times by other
children. We set all of them in a scientific frame, in order to permit anyone  to approach insects, spiders and centipedes
well. All pictures have captions with the name of the animal, the date, the
place, and the discoverers.

We are still waiting for good materials from other parts of the world. Many have promised to send us. We are looking forward to receiving them…

http://www.visiblechildren.net/museum/