“Taiwan, our home” is another exhibition aimed for children aged 5 to 10, in succession to the previous permanent installment “Discovering Taiwan” in 2017. This exhibition showcases various creatures co-existing in Taiwan. Part of the exhibit takes the form of a play, with four main acts being land, ocean, sky and change. Each species and groups are protagonists of their unique life stories. Today at the museum, a Taiwanese Clouded Leopard, one of NTM’s most valued collections, made its appearance as guardian elf “Cloudy”, accompanying our little visitors to embark on a journey, learning about abundant natural and historical resources that Taiwan has to offer.
Regardless of static or active, large or small, first ones here or last to come, every creature mother nature nurtures is part of this island. The exhibition takes the perspective of Taiwanese natural history and anthropology。There are six units altogether, ”The Talkative Stones”, “The Forest Playground”, “The Migrant Birds’ Island Excursion”, “Once Upon A Time On The Island”, “The Island’s Silhouette”, and “Life’s Prosperity”. With a narrative that follows story-telling, easily understood expressions and interactions on various levels are integrated. That way, kids can deepen their knowledge of their homeland, and become more respectful towards life and gain awareness of the differences between individual creatures.
Roughly 150 specimen of plant, animal, mineral and fossil are especially picked out for children visitors. Moreover, multiple sets of digital and machinery interactive installations are in display, allowing kids to explore freely and learn extensively with an elevated fun in learning. In our most popular unit “The Forest Playground”, with “Animal’s supper table” being the main theme, a number of wood-carved animals such as the Formosan Black Bear, Formosan macaque, wild boar, Leopard Cat, Formosan Reeve’s muntjac, mole, blue magpie, Moltrecht’s green treefrog, Five-striped blue tailed skink all gather around at the supper table, offering the spectators a close-up inspection of nature matters. Knowledge such as their physiological characteristics and dietary habits can be learned by heart in this exhibition. Furthermore, nature conditions and differences that evolution attributed to is highlighted to increase awareness of the importance of environment conservation. To urge active learning among our little visitors, in the “Life’s Prosperity” unit, there’s a set of arts installation which involves the visitors to work collaboratively to produce a piece of artwork. In the most simple form of animation, children can draw sketches of “flowers, trees and birds”, when a handful is accumulated, with a simple roll of the installment, the masterpiece done by dozens of people will be playing before your eyes. The museum hopes to sow little seeds and strike a chord in the little visitors’ hearts with these collaborative creative artworks. The main goal is for these little seeds to grow and prosper into big trees, and eventually become a forest, where life goes on endlessly.
The director of NTM said, in order to promote the museum and widen its collection, key highlights of the museum as well as endemic species and subspecies are picked out especially to serve this end. Just to name a few, the Yellow Tiger Flag, the Taiwanese Clouded Leopard, Formosan Sambar Deer, Mikado Pheasant, Formosan flying fox, bronze bull sculpture, Comphor tree blossoms. These key highlights of the museum each transformed into guardian elves,
In celebration of the opening of this children’s exploration-themed exhibition, NTM director Hung Shi Yu delivered special thank-you gifts today. There are also original stickers designed by the museum. You are more than welcome to download them via adding our official LINE account (@ntmuseum). Our account is managed by the bronze bull of the NTM Main Building, the Flying Fox of the Natural History Branch, the Old Camphor Tree of Nanmen Branch, and friends from the Railway Department Park. These characters are a whole bunch of fun who happen to know a great deal about everything, from creatures soaring in the sky to beasts roaming on the ground. It is giving them an itch not being able to share these knowledge with you, so come and learn about all kinds of trivia about plants and animals of Taiwan.
To enrich creative content in the “Life’s Prosperity” unit, the museum welcomes kids to partake in the callout activity in which they get to share with the public the diversity of nature environment. In addition, the NTM will be hosting a family-friendly activity “Paper Cut-Outs Animation Workshop”, where children get to pick their favorite museum mascot and make use of everyday objects to make animations of interesting and unique animations. Please refer to the NTM official website for further information. (http://www.ntm.gov.tw)