2021 Volume 45 Issue 1 Pages 57-75
In response to emerging research on early childhood science education, Japanese museums have increased the number of early childhood children’s activities and exhibitions in their facilities. However, prior research has clarified neither the philosophy undergirding the early childhood children’s exhibitions’ designs and development, nor the background for the philosophy. This research explicates the philosophy and background of early childhood children’s exhibitions by conducting a case study analysis of “ComPaSS”, the Exploration Area for Families with Children at the National Museum of Nature and Science, using a literature survey and an interview survey. Our results summarized the ComPaSS philosophy into three points: cultivating scientific literacy in early childhood “feeling” and “thinking,” bringing the museum experience home, and encouraging scientific communication between parents and children. The establishment of the ComPaSS philosophy was influenced by the National Museum of Nature and Science’s need to develop an exhibition room to foster science literacy in early childhood children and by knowledge gained from existing visitor-education exhibitions. The ComPaSS philosophy is based on the National Museum of Nature and Science’s desire to propose and construct a new exhibition model.
