Natural History Museum Dr. Carlos A. Torres de la Llosa (Montevideo, Uruguay).

Abstract

Museums, in addition to generating exhibition spaces, and safeguarding and maintaining scientific-cultural collections, are educational centers. Previous investigations have shown that there is little knowledge of the native fauna in our country. In order to stimulate learning regarding native faunal species among the students who visit the museum to take guided tours, we modified the format of the latter. An exhibition-passive visit was substituted for an active one in order for visitors to take better advantage of the experience and promote the recognition of autochthonous species. This work is based on a sample of 240 students between the ages of 9 and 17 who visited the museum. Prior to the visits, visitors were asked the names of five species of native animals; during the visit, we divided them into groups and each group was given six cards with information on native animals that they had to locate in the exhibition before the other groups. At the end of the visit, they were asked again the name of five native species different from those mentioned above and those assigned to their group. During the visit, most of the students were active in the search for information and took over the museum spaces. In turn, significant differences were observed in the number of named species and in the total diversity of species mentioned before and after the visit. These results would indicate some success associated with this visit format. In the future, this visit format will be maintained and supplemented with other resources applicable inside and outside the Museum, to emphasize the importance of conserving biodiversity, especially native species, with the intention of reaching the whole of society.