MEP to Transfer Museum Resources to Novel Learning Experiences

2021年12月20日

Museum Exploration Program (MEP) has developed into a flagship program of student exchange and culture immersion at Qian Xuesen Library & Museum (QLM) since 2015. Early this year, MEP has been listed and sponsored by China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism as one of the key exchange projects between Mainland and HK & Macau. Altogether 30 projects were selected nationwide.

 

Initiating in 2015, MEP was designed to attract students from Hong Kong and Macau universities to conduct internships at various museums in Shanghai. Students start the program with a collective research project under the supervision of QLM researchers and they normally spend four or five weeks’ summer time in Shanghai. Along with the internship and research, MEP also arranges tours to museums and archaeology sites neighboring Shanghai. The series of activities allow students to learn about China’s arts and history in a comprehensive and creative way. Students are exposed to the‘field’ internship and visits, therefore can grasp an authentic taste of China’s civilization, traditional culture and contemporary museum functions. It has thus taken place continuously for six years and attracted over 60 students to join.

 

Considering the COVID, MEP this year changes its mode and focus to recruit full-time students from Shanghai universities, with Hong Kong or Macau background or as hometown. This can sustain the program by serving more students while aligning with the epidemic prevention measures. Hong Kong and Macau students from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Fudan University, East China Normal University, East China University of Political Science and Law, and Shanghai Theatre Academy take part in this year’s program. They take internships in QLM, Shanghai Film Museum, Shanghai Arts and Crafts Museum, Shanghai Radio Museum, and Shanghai Children’s Museum. Internships are coordinated to combine students’ interests and museums’ daily work.

 

As a university museum, QLM has the unique potential to connect ‘students’ and ‘museums’, thus creating innovative educational resources for university students. MEP is one of the projects that QLM designs to transfer enormous museums expertise and resources to novel and original learning experiences for university students.