• Home
  • About

ArtPlantae Today

Connecting artists, naturalists, and educators

Feeds:
Posts
Comments
« Website News & Updates
Hazel West-Sherring Passionate About Creating Real Botanical Experiences »

Educational Wall Charts Teach Less, Better

October 28, 2011 by Tania Marien

This past summer, we learned about the discovery of botanical wall charts at Randolph College in Virginia. Uncovered in the attic of the science building, the charts became the focus of a six-month exhibition at the Maier Museum of Art.

Today we learn more about not just botanical wall charts, but educational wall charts in general. The history of educational wall charts is revealed in the beautiful new book, The Art of Instruction: Vintage Educational Charts from the 19th and 20th Centuries by Katrien Van Der Schueren, a lifelong collector of educational charts.

As we learned from curator, Lydia Kirchner, wall charts became popular teaching devices when the growth of the student population in Germany exceeded the number of available teachers. The large visual aids helped teachers communicate with their large classes. The charts were created without text intentionally so teachers could present information as needed. Since the charts were void of descriptive text, the charts had to tell their own stories and this is exactly what they did. Charts did more than present images of morphological structures. They told stories about life cycles, species-specific behaviors, and relationships between species (Van Der Schueren, 2011).

The popularity of wall charts declined as class size declined and with the publication of illustrated textbooks and the creation of presentation tools like the slide projector (Van Der Schueren, 2011). Charts were taken off classroom walls, placed in storage and sat in the dark for years, just like the charts at Randolph College.

Van Der Schueren tells the fascinating story about how the wall charts of the late 1800s were created by painter Gottlieb von Koch (Ernst Haeckel’s assistant), college director Dr. Friedrich Quentell and teacher Heinrich Jung. The charts of Koch, Quentell, and Jung are still in print today. Most of the charts have been updated and are available from Hagemann Educational Media who purchased the rights to Jung-Koch-Quentell wall charts in the 1950s when the original distributor went out of business. Most of Hagemann’s revised wall charts are featured in The Art of Instruction. Also featured are images of Danish and French educational charts in their original condition (what a treat!).

Each page in The Art of Instruction showcases either a botanical or zoological wall chart. More than pretty paintings of flowering plants, the 71 botanical wall charts touch on several topics in botany. They also tell stories about algae, fungi and gametophyte and sporophyte generations. Jung, Koch, and Quentell not only highlight the gross morphological features of plants in their charts but address plants at the cellular level too. This same approach was taken with the zoological charts they created. More than paintings of animals and skeletons, the zoological charts explain biomechanics, organ systems, embryology, comparative zoology, avian morphology, insect life cycles and even how trichina worms embed themselves in muscle fiber.

While viewing this book, it is great fun to identify as many concepts as possible when studying each chart. You can “test” yourself by comparing your observations with the keys written for each Jung-Koch-Quentell chart. Keys accompanying 78 of the botanical and zoological wall charts in the book are included in the appendix.

There is much to learn from the vintage charts in The Art of Instruction. History aside, they show how biological concepts can be described in a limited space and without the use of words. They serve as beautiful examples of how to teach less, better.


The Art of Instruction: Vintage Educational Charts from the 19th and 20 Centuries

Available at ArtPlantae Books.



Also See

  • Botanical Wall Charts in the Classroom
  • Wall Charts and Transparencies by Hagemann

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

Related

Posted in Teaching & Learning |

  • I’m curious about…

  • What Readers Are Reading Now

    • California
    • Washington DC
    • Graphite Artist Writes About Techniques to Achieve Realism in Botanical Art
    • Anna Knights Creates Botanical Paintings with Captivating Detail
    • Florida
  • Plants & You

  • Featured Guests

    Wendy Hollender (interview)

    Wendy Hollender

    Gilly Shaeffer

    Today’s Botanical Artists

    Society of Botanical Artists

    Billy Showell (interview)

    Billy Showell

    Sarah Simblet (webinar)

    Robin Brickman

    Mark Granlund

    Wendy Hollender (webinar)

    Diane Cardaci

    Katie Lee (webinar)

    Bruce L. Cunningham (webinar)

    Jane LaFazio (interview)

    Jane LaFazio

    Mally Francis (interview)

    Kandis Elliot

    Anne-Marie Evans

    Margaret Best

    Elaine Searle

    Mindy Lighthipe

    Niki Simpson

    Anna (Knights) Mason

    Helen Allen

    Birmingham Society of
    Botanical Artists

    Hazel West-Sherring

    John Muir Laws

    Martin J. Allen

    Institute for Analytical Plant Illustration

    Mairi Gillies

    Georgius Everhardus Rumphius

    Liz Leech

    Valerie Littlewood

    Heeyoung Kim

    Anna Laurent

    Linda Ann Vorobik

    Shawn Sheehy

    Gary Hoyle

    Katie Zimmerman

    Mariella Baldwin

    Anita Walsmit Sachs

    Ruth Ava Lyons

    Katie Zimmerman

    Kellie Cox-Brady

    Jennifer Landin

    Laurence Hill

    Gretchen Kai Halpert

    Susan Leopold

    Tina Scopa

  • Global Impact

    Botanists and illustrators strive to document conifers around the world.

  • Nature Near You

    Global Directory of Botanical Gardens
    Botanic Gardens Conservation International
    Search for a Garden

    National Park Service
    Search for national parks at the National Park Service website.www.nps.gov

    National Environmental Education Foundation's Nature Center Guide.
    Find Your Nature Center

    Rails-to-Trails
    Find a trail for hiking, walking, cycling or inline skating. The Rails-to-Trails Conservancy and its volunteers work to convert unused railroads into trails for healthful outdoor activities.
    Search their national TrailLink database to locate a trail near you.

    Sierra Club Trails
    Locate trails for hiking, cycling, climbing, and many other outdoor activities.
    Search Sierra Club Trails

  • © 2007-2022 by Tania Marien. All rights reserved.
    Contact Tania

    Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. Artists retain the copyright to their work.

    The ArtPlantae® logo is a registered trademark.

Create a website or blog at WordPress.com

WPThemes.


  • Follow Following
    • ArtPlantae Today
    • Join 1,788 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • ArtPlantae Today
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Copy shortlink
    • Report this content
    • View post in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d bloggers like this: