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Published: March 1999.
Linking and Thinking - The Museum@School
Susan Hazan , The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israelhttp://www.imj.org.il/vrmenorah
Session: Enhanced Student Experiences
Through on-line quests, inter school projects and competitions, and the direct and active of involvement of students, teachers, and families with curators and museum staff, the Israel Museum has brought the Museum to School via an interactive and dynamic web site for students, teachers and their families. Until recently,out-reach museum educational activities were associated with traditional media delivery; brochures, kits and video, providing information for the pre- museum visit and an opportunity to take a little something back to the home or classroom after the visit. Internet delivery of educational material can add a further dimension - interactivity. While it is fairly simple to translate educational print and video material into the html environment, the real challenge for museum educators lies in their ability to create a link between the school and the museum, between student and student, from school to school and from the home to the school. The Ruth Youth Wing, the Education Department of the Israel Museum, Jerusalem, has designed a new interactive school program based on the 3D virtual exhibition, 'The Light of the Menorah', a photo realistic 3D gallery tour, streamed at 15 frames per second over standard dial-up modems with embedded 3D-hyper links enabling students to interact with the movie. This is an adaptation of a major temporary exhibition at the Israel Museum, 'In the Light of the Menorah: Story of a Symbol' which traced the manifold incarnations and interpretations of the seven-branched candelabrum, from Biblical sacred object to national emblem, as represented in objects from the extensive Museum's collections of archaeology, Judaica, and the fine arts, and through icons from institutions world wide. This has offered an opportunity to devise new and exciting activities, incorporating the real time interactive component.