Discovering minerals and rocks

We all like to go on a discovery tour - regardless of age. And we like to use all our senses. But the most important thing in everything we do is that we UNDERSTAND what we are doing. Geoscientific collections in particular offer the potential to learn by TAPPING.

In German usage, „Verstehen“ and „Begreifen“ are to be used synonymously and it means to grasp with the hands, goes better into the memory, is better understood.

And that is what we do in practice in the museum, especially elementary and middle school students are very receptive here. Away from the strict theory and the classic guided tour, encourage the students to participate, to actively create. Practical examples, such as feeling in cloth bags, arranging selected rocks to form a rock cycle, actively getting to know physical properties such as hardness, fissility, density, fluorescence, etc. are presented using examples. Depending on the age, from KITA-age to senior, different modules are offered in the Mineralogical Collection of the University of Jena to get to know and "grasp" geoscientific contexts. There is a conscious decision not to use a lot of technology on site, and the focus is on working with the object. Thereby the uniqueness of the products of our nature is brought closer to the visitors, because only a conscious contact with nature can protect it!