Museum Complex of Natural Sciences

Galați, România

The Museum was founded in 1956, in a building located in the central zone of the city. Since 1992 the construction of the current museum complex, along the Danube bank, has begun. The complex was given in public circuit in 2003 and includes: aquarium, museum with temporary exhibition halls and scientific warehouses, a spacious conference room, as well as a planetarium and an observatory. The scientific heritage of the museum exceeds 60,000 scientific pieces, ordered by collections. The Aquarium which is in at the basement of the building includes an impressive collection of fish species from the lower Danube river basin, the Mediterranean Sea, and tropical freshwater fish fauna. The Planetarium and The Observatory are located on the second floor of the building, where two permanent exhibitions dedicated to the Solar System and the Universe can also be visited. The projection system used is a digital, state-of-the-art one. 

The first floor of the museum building is designed for temporary exhibition spaces. On its lobby there is an itinerary exhibition from the National Museum of Natural History Grigore Antipa, entitled ”Grigore Antipa 150”, dedicated to the 150th anniversary of the birth of one of the greatest Romanian scientists, who founded the museum of natural sciences in Romania but also played an important role in the sustainable conservation of fish resources in our country. The Temporary exhibition ”On the peaks of the Carpathians”, present aspect related to the biodiversity of the Carpathian Mountains.  Other two micro exhibitions are: ”Tentacles and tentacles” -  adaptations of aquatic animals” and ”Living Fossils” - horseshoe crabs (Limulus polyphemus), crustaceans archaic species spread coast of North America. They are the descendants of the trilobites.

During the visit students studied biodiversity - a result of adaptation to the environment.

To prepare the visit to the museum, the teacher presented the notion of biodiversity and the purpose of the visit: 

- discovering biodiversity of the Carpathian Mountains, the freshwater and marine aquatic ecosystems found in the museum

- observing adaptation of organisms to the environment in which they live, and solving the tasks of a ”treasure hunt”.

At school, we have created the questionnaire for the ”treasure hunt”. 

The visit of 9th E class took place in December, 2018. The 27 students observed the biodiversity and answerd the questionnaire. Then the teacher Ghețeu Mariela evaluated the answers and discussed with them the correct ones.

 After this museum visit, we organized an exhibition of animals made of recyclable materials.