NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM QUESTIONNAIRE
NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM, TRING (NHMT1, 2016)
Name: Zoe Templeton
Job Role: Public Educator and Museum Assistant at Natural History Museum, Tring
Date of Questionnaire: 6th January 2016
Questions and Answers:
1) How can the education of insects affect people’s opinions of them?
Education can give people a better understanding of insects and therefore help to overcome fear, or sometimes finding out more about a particular species and finding out that the insect is poisonous or bites/stings could make a person fearful where before, when they were ignorant to the fact, they did not have any fear. Understanding the role of insects within an ecosystem is also important so they are valued rather than seen as pests.
2) How does the Natural History Museum educate the public about Insects?
At NHM Tring, we have a modest collection of insect specimens displayed in Victorian Cases. The interpretation is limited to the scientific name of the specimen. The public programme including the schools and events offer also include insect themes such as minibeasting, classification of invertebrates, bioblitz days, big nature day, insect crafts and handling sessions including both UK and tropical species. The NHM entomology collection is based in South Kensington
3) Do you think these spaces are successful?
The spaces used to display insects at the NHM Tring are very successful in encouraging visitor’s curiosity. The insects are displayed in Victorian cabinets which can only be viewed by opening the wooden case doors to reveal the specimens within! Each cabinet houses a collection of different types of insects and visitors enjoy opening the doors to discover what type of insect is inside, maybe a butterfly collection, beetles, spiders or scorpions! As the specimens are fixed rather than crawling around this can allow people to look at the closely and not worry about where they are/how they move.
4) Have you experienced any negative responses to the exhibits/displays? If so, why do you think this is?
I have not experienced any negative reaction to the actual exhibits/displays other than when someone who has a fear of a certain insect opens a case containing that insect! Spiders, butterflies and moths seem to be the more common fear from my experience. The cases do have a sign above them indicating the contents of each case.
5) Is there anything you would change about the space to make it more effective?
No, the NHM at Tring contains the collection of Walter Rothschild who built the museum – it is a historic museum, the cases and display spaces were specifically designed to house the specimens inside them and so the current space would not be changed.
6) How often do you update your exhibits/information? Please explain.
As in answer 5, the Walter Rothschild collection is the focus of NHM Tring and as such the permanent exhibits are not/would not be updated as such. We have a temporary exhibit space in Gallery 2 which showcases several different exhibitions throughout the year.
7) Do you think the environment has an affect on how efficiently and successfully people will learn?
Yes, I think a stimulating and interesting environment encourages people to take more notice of what they are looking at and learning, however I also think that staff available in the gallery space who will interact with visitors is extremely valuable in this respect.
8) For somebody who has a fear of insects, do you think healthcare or educational spaces would be more effective in helping them overcome their fear?
I think that educational spaces would be more effective so that the person who was trying to overcome their fear could learn at their own pace and view specimens in a controlled environment. An educational space would also provide the opportunity for the person to ask questions or investigate further.
9) How would you go about educating people about insects, who already have a fear of them? Would it be the same as your current exhibits/displays or would you make changes?
I, personally, would keep the displays at NHM Tring the same as I think that the display cases give visitors the opportunity to view the insect specimens closely within an enclosed glass box, if the visitor is nervous they can just close the door and the specimen is hidden.
NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM, LONDON (NHML1, 2016)
Name: Alisa Crisp
Job Role: Interpretation Developer and Exhibit Designer at Natural History Museum, London
Date of Questionnaire: 18th January 2016
Questions and Answers:
1) How can the education of insects affect people’s opinions of them?
This is part of a much bigger debate about Museums, education and emotionally engaging audiences. For example, see the publications of Eilean Hooper Greenhill.
2) How does the Natural History Museum educate the public about Insects?
Again, see links above about education in Museums. More specifically in terms of engaging our visitors with insects we have several methods: our Creepy Crawlies gallery; Nature Live events where visitors can meet one of our scientists and see some more of the collection; and the Cocoon which is a gallery about our science and collections, including entomology.
3) Do you think these spaces are successful?
Yes, we evaluate all our exhibitions and events. Some are more successful than others. For example, the Creepy Crawlies gallery is older than the Cocoon and is less up-to-date.
4) Have you experienced any negative responses to the exhibits/displays? If so, why do you think this is?
No.
5) Is there anything you would change about the space to make it more effective?
This is not something I have looked into, as I don’t work on these galleries or in this area.
6) How often do you update your exhibits/information? Please explain.
We aim to keep our galleries as up-to-date as possible, but with such a large Museum and limited resources this is not as often as would be ideal. We update information or labels as and when it is necessary, which might be every few years for a large gallery like or . We aim to redo our galleries every 20 or so years.
7) Do you think the environment has an affect on how efficiently and successfully people will learn?
Absolutely – environments are very important for affecting how people learn or behave.
8) For somebody who has a fear of insects, do you think healthcare or educational spaces would be more effective in helping them overcome their fear?
Unsure.
9) How would you go about educating people about insects, who already have a fear of them? Would it be the same as your current exhibits/displays or would you make changes?
This is not something I have experience of. When we develop exhibitions or galleries we conduct extensive research and test different options with our visitors before deciding on the content and approach. This process usually takes around 2 years.
