The Dynamic Interdisciplinary Museum (Museu Dinâmico Interdisciplinar – MUDI) is a result of the maturation of the Extension Project “Interdisciplinary Center of Sciences” (Centro Interdisciplinar de Ciências – CIC), which has been in development at the State University of Maringá (Universidade Estadual de Maringá – UEM) since 1985, with the aim of bringing the University closer to the students in primary and secondary education, and to the overall community.
MUDI’s extension projects contribute to educate people who are engaged with social matters. Professors and assistants working at the museum are committed to the popularization of knowledge. The museum develops a great educational work by providing visits, lectures, courses, radio programs, theatrical performances, music, and events which are organized inside UEM or at other locations, as itinerant actions carried out by MUDI.
Collections and experiments belonging to the museum are employed in many useful activities: to raise awareness of the harmful consequences of tobacco consumption in human health and the environment; to warn against the excessive consumption of alcoholic beverages; to work towards the prevention of breast cancer, early pregnancy, STDs and AIDS; to raise a discussion on urban violence; to produce orchid and bromeliad saplings from seeds; to spread information on the use, necessity and cultivation of, as well as on the economic possibilities associated to, medicinal plants; to present alternative methods of teaching and learning about physical and chemical phenomena encountered on daily life; to integrate art into the teaching and learning of sciences, in order to achieve an educational approach that incorporates citizenship values and leisure into the learning process.
Currently, in a partnership with governmental institutions and entities, MUDI provides shows, lectures, and two theatrical performances to the public through the project Dramatizing Citizenship (Dramatizando a Cidadania): Act of the Ship of Taxation (Auto da Barca do Inferno) and Abaecatu Group - Music and Poetry to discuss Science, Citizenship, and the Environment.
Translated by:
Natalia Corbello Pereira
Proofread by:
Liliam Cristina Marins