Considered one of the most attended museums and venues in Taiwan, the National Museum of Natural Science is an important landmark in Taichung City and the third most famous resort in the country, under Taipei Zoo and National Palace Museum. It brings over 3 million visitors every year, with 65% of attendees being schoolchildren. The Science Center offers various interactive exhibits of actual science experiments, four halls that comprise more than 650 thousand specimens and objects, the Botanical Garden, the Space IMAX Theater, 921 Earthquake Museum and stately touring presentations throughout the year. Indeed, the Museum constantly offers something new for everyone.
Across the 22 wonderful acres, the National Museum of Natural Science is a six-venue complex that houses state-of-the-art theater, various exhibitions, education and comprehensive collections and research. Under the theater section, it comprises six theatres, namely the space theater, SOS theater, 3D theater, Environment theater, Bird’s eye view theater and multiuse theater. Each of them offers the best film experience with huge frame films projected on specially designed screens that give off some of the most striking computer-generated digital images and live-action film. It is also equipped with first-rate sound systems.
The Museum consists of two kinds of exhibitions – the permanent and temporary exhibits. The permanent exhibits present the historical basis of various natural sciences, which include zoology, geology, botany and anthropology. Temporary exhibits consist of recent scientific knowledge and issues. The exhibitions come from various sources, including those from external sources, those designed in-house and co-productions so they can cater to visitors of all ages with varied levels of knowledge. Besides proactively joining projects organized by other institutions, the Museum also reaches out with their temporary exhibits to far-flung areas in and out the country. Being a cultural and scientific institution, the Museum has tried to motivate people in learning more and supply the resources to stimulate desire by the use of exhibitions. Through the exhibitions, it brings more members and attendees back to Museum again and again.
One important responsibility of the Museum is providing education to the society. With this, the Museum works harder in attracting visitors, stimulate curiosity and later, expand their horizons. If the collection is said to be the ‘heart’ of the museum, then education is the ‘spirit’. Currently, the Museum works to extend its contact with visitors in varied levels and through different approaches, in order to create an efficient learning environment. Its educational programs are intended to supplement the people’s daily or actual life experiences and perhaps satisfy people’s needs and interests.
With use of exhibits, collections, objects, specimens, models, research achievements and instructions, its educational programs address today’s issues, promote the habit of using the museum’s facilities and raise public interest in science.
The National Museum of Natural Science’s collections and research is its core function. Perhaps almost all museums in the world would agree that education and research are the principal goals of museums. To satisfy these goals, the Museum promotes collections and research from five significant departments including botany, geology, anthropology, zoology and collection management. All of these departments work hand in hand with the exhibitions, science education and organizational departments, with integration of task and professional distribution of labor.
Discovering the Taichung ChengHuang Temple
Leave a Reply