When the museum went to school and vice-versa: a collaboractive construction of digital learning objects for environmental education

Abstract

This research project articulated a collaborative work between a  University Museum and a School to develop digital learning objects for educational practices with school-aged subjects in the museum context, focusing onEnvironmental Education. The Museu da Terra e da Vida –  CENPÁLEO, located in the city of Mafra/Santa Catarina, is presented and a reflection on educational practices in the themed room “Current Life,” which contains dioramas and taxidermized roadkill animals found in federal highways in the region. From the assumption that the museum’s function goes beyond the idea of memory to preserve, instead working as a memory to mobilize, an active investigation was conducted with two complementary investigative paths: When the Museum went to School, resulting in the collaborative construction of a digital object in augmented reality, called E-book “Dirija com Educação Ambiental: animal silvestre na pista” [E-book “Environmental Education while Driving: wildlife animals on the road]; and, on the other path, When the School went to the Museum, which culminated in the implementation of a digital object at CENPÁLEO for “Interactive exhibition in Augmented Reality of taxidermized roadkill wildlife animals.” It is concluded that the museum-school interfaces in the production of educational practices potentiated the specificities of museum education with an emphasis on Environmental Education contributing to the Museum.  Therefore, it is inferred that this practice can favor experiences that encourage visitors to reflect on the past to mobilize new behaviors about the modes of production and consumption of culture, thus changing the future.