Hangzhou Xixi Investment & Development Co., Ltd.: An International Tourism Complex Rooted in the Cultural Heritage of Xixi Waterways
Wetland Museum | A 9‑Year‑Old Running for Director? China’s Wetland Museum Has Opened Another Branch—and This One Is Entirely Run by Children!
Release time:
2019-09-20
In early September, while everyone was sharing their “first lesson of the new school year,” students at Hangzhou Xingzhi No. 2 Primary School were bustling with activity, busy competing for the position of museum director.
The young docent is explaining butterfly knowledge to the audience.
Today, this museum officially opened its doors. It is the second “campus museum” in China’s wetland museum construction initiative, themed around butterflies and named “Flowers That Fly.”
Last year, the China Wetland Museum partnered with Hangzhou Wenxin Primary School to launch the first “School Museum.” Dedicated to the theme of biodiversity through shells, the museum features a permanent exhibition titled “Coming with Shells—A Special Exhibition on Shells,” showcasing over 1,400 specimens of nearly 600 rare and exotic shell species from both China and abroad. This innovative model of museum–school collaboration has even been featured in People’s Daily.
What is in the butterfly house?
“Flying Flowers” — The Butterfly Pavilion at the China Wetland Museum showcases more than 900 butterfly specimens, including 484 species (and subspecies) across 13 families of butterflies, as well as 12 species across 4 families of moths.
The entire museum is housed within the teaching building of Xingzhi No. 2 Primary School. After classes and during lunch breaks, children only need to take a few steps to reach the exhibition halls. Like the Shell Museum, the Butterfly Museum continues to follow the same design concept. Compared to the extensive multimedia exhibits at the China Wetland Museum itself, the school museum primarily features numerous physical specimens on display, supplemented by illustrated explanations that convey scientific knowledge.
Among them, the wall of butterfly specimens is the most spectacular: all 700 specimens are displayed in pairs, one facing forward and the other backward, allowing children to see the butterflies in their entirety. Topics such as “What Are Butterflies?”, “The Butterfly’s Physiological Structure”, “The Life Cycle of a Butterfly”, “The Conservation and Utilization of Butterflies”, and “The Many Faces of Butterflies” are explained through simple, easy-to-understand popular science texts that can be compared with real specimens and correlated with the knowledge found in natural science textbooks. This display approach places greater emphasis on enabling children to experience and appreciate the wonders of nature firsthand.
The Butterfly Q&A section is a wall where children can satisfy their curiosity: What’s the difference between butterflies and moths? What do butterflies like to eat? Do butterflies migrate? How do butterflies reproduce? What is each country’s national butterfly? You can find the answers here.
The educational instructors at the Wetland Museum have developed four major thematic courses—butterfly-themed science outreach plays, butterfly ecological observation, butterflies and traditional culture, and butterfly conservation and utilization—as an extension of the Butterfly Pavilion’s content.
How is the Shell Museum doing?
Last year, after the opening of China’s first wetland museum—“School Museum”—the Education and Outreach Department made its first attempt to develop five major curriculum modules in collaboration with primary school textbooks: “First Steps with Shells,” “The Wonders of Shells,” “Shells in the Wild,” “Shells and Humanity,” and “Appreciating Shells.” In class, students explored shells through touch, tapping, and dripping water, using sight, touch, and hearing to open the door to nature.
“Coming with Shells” – Photo Archive of the Shell Museum at the China Wetland Museum
The Shell Museum, which has been open for a year now, remains a “must-visit spot” for the children of Wenxin Primary School. Some students recognized the “same” shells in the museum when they went on vacation to the seaside, while others, in preparation for their candidacy as docents, taught themselves about various biological subjects and became little naturalists—so much so that even their parents marveled at the power of curiosity.
Can the children be well-behaved?
After the “School Museum” opened, many parents from other schools began inquiring: “Can we visit? Is this a museum exclusive to a particular school?” In fact, during the early stages of discussions about the “School Museum” project, both the museum and the school tacitly agreed that this would be an open platform, welcoming schools and government organizations to schedule visits. Of course, this placed higher demands on the day-to-day management of the “School Museum,” especially since both branch locations are being operated and managed entirely by the students themselves.
Museum staff, the little director, and the young docents held a meeting to exchange ideas.
Each year, the school organizes “Little Curators” and “Little Docents” election activities, during which they jointly establish daily management responsibilities, such as conducting routine inspections, handling reservation registrations, and providing guided tours. The regular meetings held by both the museum and the school also invite these young curators and docents who work on the front lines to participate in discussions, offering their input on the museum’s exhibitions, operations, and curriculum development.
The Little Curator and Little Docent of the Butterfly Pavilion Receive Their Appointment Letters.
The children’s suggestions have been carefully incorporated into the wetland museum’s work plan. For example, the upcoming science outreach MOOCs will feature typical wetland flora and fauna, with the children themselves preparing the educational content. Taking the school campus museum as the starting point, we aim to spark students’ interest in nature, gradually expanding their focus from individual topics like seashells and butterflies to the entire ecosystem.
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