Museum activity has a built-in education component; this is even more specific in the case of an academic collection. The Mineralogical Museum of Babes-Bolyai University was created for supporting teaching of mineralogy at university level. Student educational activities changed through time and recently some more interactive projects were added to the traditional guided tours (Educational projects for students).

Especially after opening to the public (2002), the educational component in our museum has been diversified, so that it can now address the target audience. Most of our visitors are school groups (primary, secondary and high school level) from the town and the Cluj district. For them, some recent educational projects have been developed (Educational projects for children and teenagers).

Besides the students in geology, students from other faculties often visit the museum. The projects for students and teaching staff include:

• Guided tours designed for the following: geology, biology, environmental sciences, chemistry, physics, mathematics-astronomy, history-archaeology, agricultural sciences, pedology, forestry, material sciences, architecture, and the Arts.
• Quiz test in descriptive mineralogy (interactive web format) - consists of ten questions on macroscopic and physical properties of minerals, based on images of museum samples.
• Excursion guides (Baia Mare, Banat regions) coordinated by the teaching staff of the Mineralogy Department. They include information and images on the museum collections.
• Working with volunteers especially involving enthusiastic students in preparing temporary exhibitions, data collection for the computer catalogue etc.

These projects were designed as components of informal learning, in a dynamic and interactive way. They are meant to increase the interest of young people on minerals, rocks and natural environment in general, but also to support teachers in their evaluation. Each project was designed for a specific target-group.

• Treasure search (for grades 4 to 8, ages between 10-15) - at the beginning of the visit, one or two volunteer pupils are given a simplified sketch of the exhibit area with some of the most representative minerals and collections marked explicitly. By gathering the information obtained during the visit, they have to find the place where a "treasure" is hidden... which they can take back home, or at school...
• Quiz test (for grades 9 to 12, ages between 15-18) - consists of ten questions referring to the minerals and rocks that were presented during the guided tour. The goal is to familiarize pupils with specific terms, and to highlight some significant properties and usage of minerals. Teachers can use the test for evaluation on returning to the classroom. Additionally, pupils are asked to write down their comments and suggestions on the visit to the museum. Thus, it is also used as "feed-back" by the curator.
• Top-10 of the specimens in the museum (for grades 9 to 12, ages between 15-18) - pupils are asked to vote for their favorite specimen, and the "nominees" are statistically evaluated periodically. The current results are presented below; the list of "winners" will be updated from time to time. This project aims to increase the motivational stimulation and creativity, so well represented in this target-group. Nevertheless, it is also a tool for evaluating the degree of attractiveness of the specimens in the museum...

  For the period October 2001 – October 2007*, the “winners” are…..:
   
  9-12. Tourmaline (zoned, polished slab)
  9-12. Opal - Australia
  9-12. Quartz (amethyst geode) – unknown locality
  9-12. Quartz (amethyst) with barite – Banska Stiavnica (Slovakia)
  8. Azurite, malachite – Bisbee, Arizona (USA)
  7. Rhodochrosite – Cavnic (Romania)
  5-6. Diamond (cut, brilliant)
  5-6. Quartz (agate, polished) – Brazil
  4. Malachite (polished slab) – Ural (Russia)
  3. Quartz (agate, polished) – unknown locality
  2. Tourmaline (var. Rubellite) – California (USA)
  1. Quartz (chalcedony) - Brazil

  
   * 38 classes of pupils have contributed to this statistics (with 345 votes) from the following high schools: Sincai, Terapia, Bathory, Emanuel, Balcescu, Grup Scolar de Industrie Usoara, Grup Scolar V. Babes, Sc. Gen. “I. Bob”, Liceul de informatica, Liceul de coregrafie, Racovita, Waldorf, Liceul de deficienti de vedere (all from Cluj-Napoca), Colegiul tehnic INFOTEL Bistrita. We thank all of them!

   

Some of these samples are included in the Photo Gallery. the others are waiting for you to be revealed in situ, in the museum!

• Do you have suggestions or comments on these projects above?
• Any other ideas for further educational activities?

Contact us! Thank you in advance!

danapop@bioge.ubbcluj.ro