Nature Activities in Urban Parks to Encourage Curiosity and Scientific Problem-Solving Ability in Kindergarteners

This study was conducted based on the fact that children in institutions for early childhood education located in cities lack the opportunity to experience nature. Therefore, urban parks are where it is possible to observe nature and natural environment, through which we examined the effects of nature activities on kindergarten children's curiosity and scientific problem-solving ability. The subjects of this study were 5-years old kindergarten children in attending public kindergartens in Cheonan and Asan and 42 children were randomly selected. The pretest and posttest were conducted on curiosity and scientific problem-solving ability before and after nature activities. The results showed that nature activities in urban parks had significant effects on improvement of kindergarten children's curiosity and scientific problem-solving ability (p <.05). Therefore, nature activities in urban parks had positive effects on preference for unknown and exploratory behavior, which are sub-factors of kindergarten children's curiosity. Nature activities also had positive effects on discovery and statement of the problem, creation and application of ideas, and conclusion to problem solving.