Young Researchers Club
Introduction
The Young Researchers Club was started in 1997 under the Museum interactive programme. The idea was that students need to discover themselves and therefore was called the discovery programme. The National Museum of Kenya had a magazine called the Horizon. In the middle of these magazine there was a pullout called the Young Researchers. It is from these that the club was developed, and further a magazine was also invented. In each issue of this interactive magazine is written around a specific topic whereby children learn in a playful way through experiments, which are simple and inexpensive.
The Young Researchers Club Targets Children between the ages of 8 to 13 years old. The aim is to offer interactive learning materials and activities to children with a view to enhance understanding of science and culture, and offer a better access to museum collection and expertise. The club focuses on activities and publications related to Cultural, Historical and Natural diversity of Kenya and how to conserve it.
Since 2012, NPO Pangaea, Japanese Non-profit-organization, and NMK conducted pilot program in NMK Nairobi. Pangaea program provides opportunities for youths aged between 8 and 15 to nurture skills for communications to present oneself and appreciate others who are different from oneself in culture, religions, or economic backgrounds. It is innovative hands-on program which uses ICT through discovering ourselves, our community, and our country. NMK is committed to provide quality public education experiences to Kenyan people. We are very excited to build our Young Researchers Club contents stronger with Pangaea. With financial assistance of JICA, NMK and Pangaea will push forward, and build foundations of youth’s programs of intercultural program and set strong training programs for facilitators and technical staffs who can serve to bring sustainable programs for all Kenya.
Objective:
- To evaluate the impact of the Young Researchers Club in the respective schools.
- Identify the areas and gaps in the school curriculum that can be met by the club.
- Clarify the duties of the Young Researchers Club patron
- Identify activities to carry out by club members
Rationale
The ministry of Education reports of the last 20 years or so have always derived poor performance in the science subjects at the national examinations. The poor performance could be translated to mean that the teaching and learning of science in schools faces a myriad of challenges which it has so far failed to overcome. Two of the problems that are often highlighted are the lack of adequate teaching materials and inappropriate teaching techniques. The museum network in the country can offer a solution for those schools in their vicinity. The museum as a repository of objects and material culture and natural heritage has a wealth of materials that could be used to illustrate some of the more abstract science concepts.
The museum established an education programme that is aimed at providing better education service for the public, especially the thousands of school children that make up a good percentage of the annual visit. It has established a programme called the museum interactive, which will design, develop and implement a wide range of education programmes for various target.