Itinerant museum: An experience to disseminate geology and paleontology in early childhood education

Abstract

The work presents the project “Museum in Movement” developed during 2019, through a partnership between the Museum of Earth Sciences, an institution managed by the Geological Service of Brazil and the Municipal Education Secretariat of the city of Rio de Janeiro. The objective was to bring the museal experience and scientific knowledge to children aged between zero and five years and eleven months enrolled in kindergartens and Child Development Space in the municipality. The intention during planning was to produce activities that promote the integration between the cognitive, psychomotor and affective areas of the students. For this reason, attention was paid to the specificities and the stage of children’s development during the selection of the collection and the production of support material for educational actions. The activities had a central theme in paleontology and the strategies used during the interaction with the students involved music, children’s stories, theater, use of costumes and games related to dinosaurs in addition to handling the fossil collection of the museum’s didactic collection, specifically, a coprolite and specimens of fish of the species Rhacolepis buccalis. As a result, the museum’s itinerancy included 1767 children from different neighborhoods and communities in the city of Rio de Janeiro, including some areas of difficult access, of great social vulnerability and history of violence. The initiative demonstrated that there is great potential for carrying out scientific dissemination activities aimed at early childhood education students, in addition to contributing to demystifying the museum as an elite and inaccessible institution.