Hands On Family Day Weekend

Posted: February 15, 2014 - 07:58 , by Amanda Girgis
Categories: 
Biodiversity, Education & Engagement | Comments () | Comment
A selection of touchable objects.

This year’s ROM Family Day long weekend delivers a first-hand exploration of ROM Biodiversity. In the Patrick and Barbara Keenan Family Gallery of Hands-on Biodiversity and the CIBC Discovery Gallery we're delivering a hands-on experience with three wild touch tables offering a first-hand, up-close exploration of insects, reptiles, and fossils.  The Hands-on Galleries emphasize tangible specimens that illustrate larger concepts found in the natural world around us. At our fossil table, we can investigate how long life has existed on Earth, and how different plants and animals are related to each other. Often we can work out how and where they lived, and use this information to find out about ancient environments. Similarly at the reptile table, we can explore what’s unique about reptiles and amphibians, like their cognitive abilities.

The presence of tangible interactive elements helps visitors, especially children to learn through touch and direct manipulation of objects. In the hands-on galleries, we allow objects to guide our pedagogy, a learning method we identify as experiential learning. Be sure to visit us on your family day excursion on Level 2 and take your museum experience to the next level (11AM -4PM, or see a full Museum scheule).