At one point during the day a group of four-year old students had grouped together outside a sink with spray bottles and Lego bricks. It had started when a single student was attracted to the sink, likely because of the allure of the water and the bright colors of the bricks. Once one student had begun playing, however, other students immediately began to congregate around them. They used the bricks to create structures and then were knocking them over using the spray bottle in a collaborative/competitive environment. The movement and bright colors brought in the child’s attention, and then the ability to collaborate and discover new structure held the children’s attention. This interaction emphasizes something I noticed while at the museum and the children’s school. There appears to be three aspects of an object that captures a child’s interest, novelty, eye-catching behavior (colors, movement, sound), and unexpected behavior. Then, the aspects of an objects that holds a child’s attention are collaboration and discovery. An attraction that can catch a child’s attention, such as though the bright colors in the Lego bricks, and then hold it, through the collaborative/competitive environment, are successful at engendering curiosity in children.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.