A Debreceni Déri Múzeum Évkönyve 2007 (Debrecen, 2008)

Múzeumpedagógia - Porcsalmy János: A gótikus és reneszánsz építészet múzeumpedagógiai feldolgozása

THREE-DIMENSIONAL HISTORY CLASS IN HUNGARY Above, students at a girls' secondary school in Debrecen (Hungary) put the finishing touch to a model of the Acropolis. Below left, the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Below right, visitors examine the temple of Der El Bahri (Thebes, Egypt) built exactly to scale. The models stimulate student interest in history and different cultures far more effectively than textbook illustrations or film slides. Photo story by Paul Almasy A pioneer experiment in the use of threedimensional visual materials in teaching is being carried out in a secondary school in Hungary. John Porcsalmy, a history teacher at the "Csokonai" girls school in Debrecen, has created a school museum made up of models of all types of architecture such as dwelling places, religious buildings, archaeological sites and public buildings and monuments, representative of various parts of the world and different periods of civilization. What makes this "school museum" particularly original is the fact that it is the pupils themselves, with the help of a few craftsmen, who make the models. Made chiefly of wood, plaster and cardboard, the models range from prehistoric monuments such as the standing stones of Carnac (France) and the Cromlech of Stonehenge (U.K.) to the Egyptian pyramids at Gizeh and the Byzantine church at Novgorod (U.S.S.R.), and include a number of Hungary's own monuments. The school museum has also assembled a collection of reproductions of ancient clothes, tools and other objects, copied by students from originals loaned by museums. According to Mr Porcsalmy, a far greater interest is aroused among students by these models than by the pictures in text books and the showing of slides. Other schools in Hungary, inspired by Debrecen's example, are adopting the same techniques. Photos 0 Paul Almasy