Our school community received a small collection of minerals donated by the Museum of Mineralogy Aitiara (MuMA). The museum is located in Botucatu, inland of São Paulo. The museum’s curator Berenice Balsalobre handed out the collection to Renata, one of our teachers (see photo below).
About the museum
The MuMA has a very diverse collection. Established in the ‘Demétria’ neighbourhood among the school buildings of the Waldorf School Aitiara, its aim is to awaken the admiration for the world of mineralogy and the beauty of earth’s crust. The museum exists thanks to the rock sample collection donated by arts teacher Erich Otto Blaich in 2008. Profoundly interested in minerals and rock formations, Blaich came to Brazil in order to gain more knowledge in this area. Together with other teachers and their students, he visited various Brazilian mines. This passion for minerals impelled his collection for a period of over 50 years. The museum space also serves as a laboratory for practical courses for high school and university students. Moreover, an important role of the museum is to raise students’ awareness of the importance of environmental protection and preservation through the harmonic integration of humans and nature. The museum’s knowledge represents all areas of Earth science. It has not only rock samples but also fossils of trilobites, Mesosaurus brasiliensis, ambers, representative samples from Chapada do Araripe and a great quantity of water carapace samples.
Access the museum virtually on www.muma.org.br.