Description:
This book celebrates dioramas as unique and essential learning tools for bio-
logical education for all. It provides information about their historical development,
demise, and more recent renaissance, past and the modern developments in their
construction, the technique of taxidermy, as well as aspects of interpretation and
educational research about learning processes including different methods to en-
gage audiences, such as performance and storytelling.
We describe the journey of dioramas from their inception through subsequent
developments to visions of their future. We also present a complementary journey
of the visitors to dioramas, their individual sense-making and construction of their
understanding from their own starting points and cultural context, often as they
interact with others (e.g. teachers, peers, parents) and media (e.g. labels).
The book consists of three parts: the past, the present as well as future trends
together with visitors’ interaction with natural history dioramas. Contributors from
different countries, from the west coast of the USA across Europe to China, and
from different professional backgrounds demonstrate the different ways is which
they use and observe dioramas.
The concept of the habitat diorama was developed at the end of the nineteenth
century in Europe and North America and also included aspects of nature conserva-
tion. Diorama exhibits contain animals and plants with their characteristic features,
and enable visitors to be able to classify the organisms and recognise the ‘exhibit
furniture’ which creates the context in which to view the plants and animals.