„Haus der kleinen Forscher“ – Preschool

Since 2012, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research has been awarding the „Haus der kleinen Forscher“ (home of the little explorers) certficate to kindergartens and primary schools, where according to their pedagogical approach, they go on regular discovery trips with the children. With this certification and the accompanying plaque, the commitment to scientific, mathematical and technical education is valued and made visible to the outside world.

To receive this certificate, three requirements must be fulfilled:

• Research in everyday life: Mathematical, informatics, natural sciences and technical subject contents are an integral part of everyday life for the children.
• Documentation of activities: projects, observations, experiments, etc. are documented.
• Participation in educational opportunities: Pedagogical subject teachers or teaching staff complete a further training programme in at least one of the following areas; MINT or ESD.

Research and discovery in everyday life can be very diverse: the questions from the girls and boys always play a central role in discovery-based learning. The children gain new insights, draw conclusions and deepen their own enjoyment in discovery and knowledge by means of making their own observations, independent experimentation as well as by examining new findings. Therefore, it is important that girls and boys experience everyday phenomena as objects of research.

The preschool children from our Platanus kindergarten chose our stream in Pankow, the ‘Panke’, as their research project and have been keeping themselves extremely busy with this body of water for a long period of time. They have taken water samples, investigated, documented and evaluated the flow velocity as well as the width and depth. The project also involved researching the history of the stream, nature conservation and the importance of good quality water for humans.

Where questions are asked, there is room for reflection and insight, ideas and possibilities. Even in the kindergarten we make it possible for our girls and boys to have an early education in the fields of mathematics and natural sciences. We are delighted and very proud that our concept and our everyday work has now been recognised and awarded the „Haus der kleinen Forscher“ certification plaque.