The "International Museum Day" on May 18 is coming as scheduled, with the theme of "Museums Committed to Education and Research". In 2023, the Museum of Mechanical Art of University of Shanghai for Science and Technology will officially open its reservation channel to the public. Since its completion in 2019, this museum integrating science, engineering and art has attracted more than 100 visits from primary and secondary school teachers and students, overseas art college educators, retired veteran cadres, and audiences from the art and media industries.
In the "aesthetic education" class, the beauty of art and machinery blooms in the atmosphere of education. Let's take a look~
The "curiosity" classroom leads teenagers into the "dynamic" classroom
In the past year, teachers and students from many primary and secondary schools in Shanghai have come to the Mechanical Art Museum for study tours and exchanges. According to Nie Yuan, the person in charge of the museum, the students were curious about the "dynamic" mechanism in the exhibits, and they were eager to understand how the gears turned, how the fists in the mechanical work "Wu Song Fights the Tiger" were slowly raised and smashed into the tiger in an instant, and why the small fish in "Stranded Fish" could "flutter" so vividly.
"Interesting", "curious" and "how to move" have become high-frequency keywords when visiting the site, "Which major should I study in the future to make this?" In the classroom here, "curiosity" opens the "knowledge window" that the children originally did not know, and perceives the other side of textbook knowledge from practice.
The "principled" classroom allows the in-depth combination of knowledge and practice
Under the premise of laying the foundation of solid theoretical knowledge, students came to the scene of mechanical artworks, experienced how various mechanical devices move at close range, analyzed the principle of mechanism, and then used 3D software to carry out innovative design of the mechanism, and after the design is completed, the parts are made by 3D printers, and further fine grinding and assembly and debugging until the mechanical devices can run smoothly.
In the museum, after the artistic beautification of the mechanical device, the internal structure is no longer intuitive and external, and the difficulty of restoring the principle of the device and then designing and presenting it has increased. ”
Li Haoyuan, a 2020 industrial design major, recalled the course he had just entered the major and said, "Not only did I have a more concrete understanding of the knowledge of mechanical design, but the process of hands-on restoration also made me appreciate the rigor of mechanical design." ”
The "aesthetic education" classroom gives new vitality to machinery
The exhibits of the Museum of Mechanical Arts not only show the exquisite skills of mechanical manufacturing, but also integrate the elements of excellent traditional Chinese culture. The exhibit "Zodiac" of the first phase of the Mechanical Art Museum is a mechanical art work created by Song Fangyuan, a teacher from the Animation Department of the School of Publishing, and the design is inspired by the well-known Chinese zodiac folk culture.
Works such as "Zodiac", "Nine-colored Deer" and "Dunhuang Flying Sky" make static traditional Chinese stories "live" and "move" through the principles of mechanical manufacturing such as chains, gears, and connecting rods. These works highlight the profound heritage of Chinese culture in aesthetic education, and provide visitors with an intuitive, detailed and touchable way to display engineering aesthetic education. Through these exhibits, young people can better understand and learn engineering knowledge, and at the same time, they have a stronger interest in the excellent traditional Chinese culture.
Text: Mao Xinhui
Editor: Xi Yuxuan
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