ABSTRACT

There is growing recognition that young children are familiar withnai\"ve physics, and construct their own theory about the natural world fromearly childhood. The research reported in this study focuses on intellectualplay activities involving pendulums carried out by young children at a kinder -garten in Japan. Over the course of three weeks, five-year-old children partic -ipated in these pendulum play activities. They made pendulums by themselves,tried them out, compared them with others, identified variables in moving,controlled these variables, and communicated their findings with others in thecontext of free guided play. Throughout these activities, the children changedtheir sense making of pendulums as objects of art to objects for investigation.Simple equipment, such as weight balances and counters, seemed to developtheir scientific and technological competency. Their findings were displayedon a communication board so that they could appreciate and discuss themwith each other. Socio-cultural aspects of science and technology in our glob -al society are coming into the spotlight in the field of science education.Drawing on recent reviews, this paper proposes some implications in relationto the theory and practice of science activities for young children that aim todevelop their scientific, technological, and social competency in early child -hood.

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