The School Museum as Educational Environment.

A visit to the museum stimulates the need for exploration, the development of cognitive emotions and feelings. In order to get the attention of students during the process of teaching and learning of history the teacher must use some surprise elements of effect and contrast. It is recommended for the teacher to use what the history museum has to offer as a non-formal educational environment which can be visited with the students. The explanations given during the visit help the students in creating a very suggestive representation of a historic reality from a certain epoch and thus coming in direct contact with objects and historical, ethnographic and numismatic relics which, in fact, illustrate the reality and content of certain historical acts and events. When there is no museum in the area where the school is located, the teacher must obtain a few graphic representations together with the members of the school community, especially together with the students, collections which can be displayed at the school museum. Creating a school museum can determine students to become more active and responsible in relation to the community's cultural patrimony and thus leading to a series of advantages for the civic dimension of teaching history in schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]