The National Museum of Natural Science () is a

national museum A national museum can be a museum maintained and funded by a national government. In many countries it denotes a museum run by the central government, while other museums are run by regional or local governments. In the United States, most nati ...

in North District,

Taichung Taichung (, Wade–Giles: '), officially Taichung City, is a special municipality (Taiwan), special municipality in central Taiwan. Taichung is Taiwan's second-largest city, with more than 2.85 million residents, making it the largest city in Ce ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

Overview

The museum covers and is a six-venue complex housing: the Space Theater, Science Center, Life Science Hall, Human Cultures Hall, Global Environment Hall, and Botanical Garden. The Research and Collection Division of the museum is divided into departments for

zoology Zoology ( , ) is the scientific study of animals. Its studies include the anatomy, structure, embryology, Biological classification, classification, Ethology, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinction, extinct, and ...

botany Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

geology Geology (). is a branch of natural science concerned with the Earth and other astronomical objects, the rocks of which they are composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Earth ...

, and

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, society, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including archaic humans. Social anthropology studies patterns of behav ...

.Yang T. Y. Aleck
Research and Collection of the National Museum of Natural Science in Taiwan

', Volume 24, pages 79–89, 2004.

History

In 1980, the government announced its plans to build a national science museum. The architect and educator

Han Pao-teh Han Pao-teh (; 19 August 1934 – 20 November 2014) was a Taiwanese architect, educator, scholar, writer, museum curator and calligrapher. Life and career Han Pao-teh (Han Pao Teh) was born in Shandong, China, and moved to Taiwan in 1949. He r ...

was commissioned as the Chair of the Preparation Committee in 1981, while he was the Dean of College of Engineering at the

National Chung Hsing University National Chung Hsing University (NCHU; ; lit. National Resurgence University) is a comprehensive research university in South District, Taichung, Taiwan. Currently, NCHU is among the four universities of the Taiwan Comprehensive University Sys ...

. As an architect, he was closely involved in the museum design. Without existing collections to exhibit, the initial phase was to create an exploratory and experiential science museum with focus on education. On New Year's Day of 1986, the first phase of the museum opened, which included the Science Center, Space Theater, administrative offices, and outdoor grounds. Han Pao-teh was appointed the first director of the museum in 1986, a post he held until 1995. For the second phase of the museum, the Life Sciences Hall, Han Pao-teh commissioned

James Gardner (designer) James "Leslie" Gardner Officer of the Order of the British Empire, OBE Royal Designers for Industry, RDI (29 December 1907 – 25 March 1995) was a British museum and exhibition designer. Although most widely known for his exhibition work, Gardne ...

, the designer of the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

, to design the exhibitions, which was completed in August 1988. The third and fourth phases included Human Cultures and Global Environment Halls, were completed in August 1993. The center piece of the Human Cultures Hall is the only full sized replica of the Song Dynasty Astronomical Hydro-driven Clock designed by Su Sung in 1092 AD. The addition of the Botanical Garden, including the Tropical Rainforest Greenhouse, was completed in 1999. In that same year, the number of specimens in the museum collection had grown to 551,705. Satellite museums include the 921 Earthquake Museum (2004), Funghuanguu Bird and Ecology Park (2013), and the Chelungpu Fault Preservation Park (2013). The current director of the museum is Huang Wen-San (.

References

External links

*
Information
from ASPAC 1986 establishments in Taiwan Museums established in 1986

Natural Science Natural science or empirical science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer ...

Natural history museums in Taiwan Museums in Taichung Science museums in Taiwan {{Taiwan-museum-stub

Overview

History

See also

References

External links