I want to know

Until February 19th, the Typhlological Museum will be the venue for the educational-interactive exhibition “I want to know”, featuring valuable old mathematics and physics teaching appliances, constructed according to the designs by the excellent pedagogue, innovator and blind naturalist Eugen Wagner.

Until February 19th, the Typhlological Museum will be the venue for an interesting educational-interactive exhibition, “I want to know”. The exhibition features the Wagner Donation collection, including mathematics and physics teaching appliances invented by the excellent pedagogue, innovator and blind naturalist Eugen Wagner.

All of the teaching appliances were made according to his designs created at the “Učila” factory where he started his career as a constructor in the 1950s, later moving on to become an advisor in the project-development department. Apart from having educational significance, the preserved old teaching appliances, which are still not obsolete and represent the timelessness of natural laws, are also an important aspect of cultural heritage. They are credible simulations of natural occurrences – so important in teaching physics and improving the students’ skills in logical, mathematical thinking, thus helping them to better understand the curriculum. Therefore, the exhibition is themed around several groups of teaching appliances used to study the laws of optics, thermodynamics and calorimetry, a system of interconnected appliances for teaching the basics of mechanics, hydromechanics, electrostatics and magnetism. At the same time, there is a special group of math teaching appliances which consist of appliances for the visual teaching of mathematical phrases and terms, such as the model of the Pythagorean Theorem, the model of a fragmented whole, the model of the binomial theorem, etc.

Using replicas of exhibited models, visitors of the exhibition will have the opportunity to actively participate in learning about and understanding particular mathematical theorems, as well as the basic laws of physics which will be presented by means of interactive experiments.

The Typhlological Museum in Zagreb was opened back in 1953, and it is one of the rare few museums in Europe dedicated to issues that disabled individuals, particularly the blind, encounter in their everyday life. It features items used in the education, rehabilitation, everyday life and artistic expression of the visually impaired. These items are divided into five different collections, and in 2008 a permanent exhibit was opened to include interactive features themed around six different categories.