Coursework
Beyond its heritage mission, the Museum of Mineralogy plays a role in the training of engineering students at Mines Paris – PSL. It offers a privileged framework for a concrete, sensitive and interdisciplinary pedagogy, based on direct observation of the collections.
A place of experimentation and transmission, the Museum hosts courses, practical work, guided tours and original educational projects related to major scientific, industrial and societal issues.
The Museum, a space for education and pedagogical experimentation
Within the Cycle Ingénieur Civil of Mines Paris – PSL, the Museum of Mineralogy is fully integrated as an educational tool. Thanks to its exceptional collections and the expertise of its team, it allows students to explore materials, crystalline forms, or the physical and chemical properties of minerals in a real and stimulating context.
The sessions conducted at the museum take the form of illustrated courses, thematic visits, practical work or observation and sample handling sessions.
These activities offer students the opportunity to mobilize their scientific knowledge in concrete contexts, develop their critical eye, and nurture a deep understanding of the subjects they are studying.
The Museum also participates in cross-disciplinary educational projects aimed at combining approaches and placing scientific knowledge within broader cultural, social, and industrial issues.
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Trainings for tour guides
The Mineralogy Museum trains tour guides who wish to conduct their own guided tours at museum.
General presentation of the training
The Musée de Minéralogie Mines Paris – PSL is a scientific museum whose mission is to provide the public with reliable and up-to-date knowledge in the scientific fields covered by its exhibitions. In order to ensure the quality of the information disseminated and the consistency of the speeches offered to visitors, the museum has set up a reception framework intended for tour guides wishing to conduct guided tours within the establishment.
This training is created for guides-lecturers holding a valid professional card. It is a prerequisite required for any guided tour conducted by an external provider.
Teachers wishing to accompany their classes can also take this training in order to become familiar with the collections and the visit path.
This training is free and will be conducted by the museum curator.
Visit Path
At the end of the training, participants will be invited to provide the museum with an outline of the course and the themes they wish to address during their visit.
Open list of guides available to the public
Following the next training sessions, the museum will offer an open list of tour guides on its website and/or upon request.
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PSL Week
The Musée de Minéralogie Mines Paris – PSL participates in the organization of the PSL “Couleur, Arts & Industrie” week in March.
This is obviously an opportunity to talk about the color of minerals, but also their use as natural pigments for example. Within this week offered to students of Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL), students are offered a global approach to color through the physical and human sciences and its industrial and artistic applications.
Places of teaching and visits
Courses and practical work: Mines Paris – PSL, ENSAD – Paris, ESPCI Paris – PSL.
Visits: Manufacture des Gobelins and the dyeing workshop, Musée de Minéralogie Mines Paris – PSL
Objective of the week “Color, Arts, Industry”
The week is mainly composed of practical work, lectures, site visits, as well as group work (see below for details). At the end of this course, students are able to:
- understand the origin of an object’s color;
- to classify and measure color (the spaces of colors);
- to analyze the factors of vision and perception of color;
- to make the connection between color and other appearance factors;
- identify the choices of colors in an industrial and environmental context;
- understanding the processing of the color image;
- explain the constraints of color reproduction.
“Arts et Sciences” workshop
Within the Museum, everything is a pretext to apprehend minerals from different angles. On the occasion of the ARTS & SCIENCES module of the Cycle 1 of the Civil Engineers of the Ecole des Mines, the museum offers a day of discovery of mineralogical collections through naturalistic drawing. The day was created in partnership with the painter Olivier Charpentier and the museum team.
This ARTS & SCIENCES day is divided into two parts: in the morning, the museum team organizes a visit to the mineral collection of Sorbonne University, on the Pierre and Marie Curie campus at Jussieu. The heads of the collection at Sorbonne University, Céline Paletta and Paola Giura, offer us a general presentation of the collection as well as a private tour of the temporary and permanent exhibitions. At the end of this discovery, Romain Bolzoni and Eloïse Gaillou from the Musée de Minéralogie Mines Paris – PSL present their view of this exceptional collection and how it is both different and complementary to the collection of the Musée de Minéralogie de Mines Paris – PSL.
It is then the turn of Olivier Charpentier to bring his artistic point of view, by presenting the naturalistic drawing, and by making on-site demonstrations with the minerals in practical cases.
The afternoon took place at the Mineralogy Museum of Mines Paris – PSL. After the morning demonstration by Olivier Charpentier, it is now up to the students to choose a mineral, to observe it carefully, to determine its shape, colors, textures, reflections, etc., and to represent it. The drawing is constrained: a format is imposed for the position of the mineral and the information (name of the mineral species, locality and inventory number, as well as the artist’s name and date). Thus, over the years, a portfolio has been kept by the museum since the first participating class in 2020.
