In a bright, spacious room in a nursery overlooking Berlin’s Natural History Museum, early years teacher Jendrik Besser is setting up a science experiment for a group of pre-schoolers. Fröbel-Kindergarten Charité Mitte’s ‘enquiry room’ (it could also be translated as ‘science room’ or ‘explorer’s room’) is lined with shelves and containers full of all kinds of interesting things – different shells, binoculars, books, a terrarium, even a replica of a human skull.
Mr Besser sets out some hairdryers and a box of items – a stone, a disposable coffee cup, a paper bag – on a table, and the six children burst into the room, very excited. They have been looking forward to this science session since they chose their activities from a range on offer that morning. Their teacher shows them a picture of a kite, starting a conversation about wind and what it does. The children recognise it as a kite they used in the autumn.
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