Characteristics of the Nature Experience Including Experiments in German Forest Kindergartens: Focusing on the Case of Baden-Württemberg

Abstract

This study points out some characteristics of the nature experience including experiments in German forest kindergartens. The episodes were analyzed from the following aspects; (1) the content of the experiments, (2) the involvement of children in the experiments, and (3) encouragement by educators’ support.

Through the analysis of the episodes, the following results were obtained: (1) the experiments had a wide variety of areas such as animals, plants, fungi, fire, air, water, soil, energy, and astral bodies; (2) first, children conducted experiments with their hands, and subsequently children inferred the result of the experiments or the reasons why the phenomena occurred; and (3) educators provided clear explanations of the experiments’ contents, which are correlated to the learning contents in elementary school.