The course "STORT – Man and the Forest" is a free history course for middle school students. Based on the exhibition STORT, we take a journey through the forest's history of Denmark, focusing on chronology, coherence and the use of history.
The course takes 45 minutes and consists of a virtual tour followed by question and answer time with one of the museum's facilitators.
The Green Museum invites middle school students to a free, online educational course. On the virtual tour, you will experience and hear about, among other things, the aurochs from the Stone Age, the man-made heath, the forester von Langen, the time of forestation, forester caps and the work hierarchy, giant machines, drones and moose. The tour will then be edited together with one of the museum's facilitators.
The purpose of the teaching process is to give students an understanding of chronology and context, and to give students the opportunity to put their own and others' historical stories into perspective, based on the forest's history of Denmark.
Denmark is a forest country. It is a reality. If we humans do nothing, more than 95 % of the country will become forest. Around the year 1800, the forest was almost extinct, due to human overconsumption. It is also a reality. It had to change, and it did. Today, the forest covers 14 %, and the Danish Parliament decided in 1989 that the forest area in the year 2100 should be 20-25%.
After the end of the ice age, animals, people and forests migrated to the area that we now call Denmark. Virtually the entire country would be covered in primeval forest today if we had done nothing. But we have done something, and for the last few thousand years there has been no untouched forest in Denmark. We have exploited the forest's resources and increasingly changed its composition to meet our needs. The forest we see now is thus a construction.
Forests are just as constructed as farmland and urban areas. We say we are going into nature when we go into the forest. We are, but it is man-made nature, not natural nature. It would look different.
From the mid-18th century, extensive plans were made for the operation and use of the forests. This was because the forest area was down to 3 % due to overexploitation. Foreign tree species were introduced, trees were lined up, new areas were planted. Wood was to be secured for the Danish people. Since then, other purposes have been added. The forests must also preserve ancient monuments and provide opportunities for recreation. The forests play a major role in biodiversity, and in addition, they must function as part of the solution to today's climate challenges.
The course consists of an online film with a virtual tour developed specifically for middle school students, followed by online question and answer time with one of the museum's facilitators on the class's digital platform. The course is offered Monday to Wednesday between 8:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. There are a limited number of places, and the courses are offered at all times.
Send an email to the museum containing:
Contact: info@dgmuseum.dk and we will return as soon as possible!
Subject: History/Intermediate
Purpose: The virtual tour of the Green Museum's exhibition "Big" tells the cultural history of man and the forest.
Grade level: 3–6th grade
Scope: 45 minutes – approximately 20 minutes virtual tour of the exhibition STORT – Man and the Forest,
then approximately 20 minutes of online meeting with one of the museum's mediators.
