EU funds help: EU funds made learning fun in the Říčany Museum

As part of the above-mentioned project, the museum staff worked with educators for four years to create 14 educational programmes. Their purpose is to enhance key competences of children and pupils in the fields of art, polytechnic education, natural sciences and history. The important part is linking formal education in school with non-formal education in the field and in the museum buildings.

"The unifying element of all programmes is the philosophy of modern museum work: Hands on!, i.e. you can touch! Long-term experiential programmes are mainly intended for pupils of primary schools or the lower grades of multi-year grammar schools and can be summed up under the term learning for real life," says Adéla Venerová, deputy director of the museum.
 
REGIONAL TEXTBOOK
The final output of the project was the electronic Regional Textbook for the Říčany Area. With it, the teachers can present selected topics about the place where their pupils live in context and in real environment.

"The Regional Textbook allows a free download of many ready-made lessons or teaching aids, such as worksheets, interactive presentations or animations. Everything is downloadable in open formats, so you can pick an idea and rewrite the data associated with your region. The textbook has approximately 150 visits per month. We are glad that our colleagues from other museums are also following this activity”, explains Edita Ježková, coordinator of educational activities.

For example, in the programme about the Middle Ages, the pupils are first introduced to the stages of history preceding this period, in order to distinguish it from other historical periods. They visit the ruins of the Říčany castle or build its paper model and models of other buildings.

"They will try out some of the activities of a child's life in those times, for example, writing on a wax tablet, weaving, sorting out grains or fighting with practice swords. Then they compare their lives with the lives of children in the past. A visualization of the possible appearance of the Říčany castle in the Middle Ages was also created. We posted the video on YouTube, where it has over 70,000 views. It is our most successful video," says Edita Ježková.

The Regional Textbook contains materials for teaching elementary studies, natural sciences, history, art or civic education. "There are also several excursion routes prepared for schools in Říčany and the surrounding area, where the teacher has information about specific locations connected directly with recommended activities for pupils, for example a research lesson where they investigate the occurrence of pollinating insects. These routes can also be used by the general public,” adds Edita Ježková.
 
A VISIT TO THE MUSEUM IS ONLY THE FIRST STEP
The entire Hands-on Museum! project cost more than CZK 7.2 million, the EU grant amounted to more than CZK 5.8 million, the state government covered the rest, roughly CZK 1.4 million. Most of the money was used for salaries and electronic aids to create visualizations and animations.

The museum has been interconnecting formal and non-formal education for about twelve years. "The trigger was the lecturers who pointed out that the children experienced something in the museum during the educational programme but there was no follow-up, the schools simply went on a trip to the museum. That's why we designed the programmes in such a way that, after having experienced something here, teachers can download other aids, audio or visual materials and continue with the topic in the classroom. Our motto is learning for real life. So that children do not learn because they are supposed to learn, but are motivated to learn more to make sense of things," says Adéla Venerová.

In addition to educational programmes, the Říčany Museum also hosts many events and exhibitions for the public. "We also train teachers, we support them in using activation teaching methods. We have created an original method of creative play for kindergarten teachers. All the methods provide a lot of space for the child’s development. A unique space here is our geopark where teachers, pupils and the general public discover animate and inanimate nature in many contexts in a fun way," Jakub Halaš, director of the Říčany Museum, describes the museum’s features.
 
“Our motto is learning for real life. So that children do not learn because they are supposed to learn, but are motivated to learn more to make sense of things." Adéla Venerová, deputy director.
 
EU FUNDS HELPED TO ENLIVEN THE MUSEUM IN ŘÍČANY. The museum in Říčany is visited by children of all age groups. It has become a modern educational institution that is appealing to preschoolers as well as younger grammar school students. A total of 14 educational programmes were created thanks to CZK five million of support from EU funds. Activities take place not only in the museum itself, but also in the surroundings of the local castle or in the unique geopark where you can study animate and inanimate nature.
 
Photo: Deník daily/Jiří Macek + Říčany Museum archive