Cultural Heritage Kids Workshop, “Becoming an Egyptian Archaeologist!”
The Tokyo National Research Institute for Cultural Properties organized a Cultural Heritage Kids Workshop as a program targeting elementary students to promote an interest in cultural heritage to the next generation, who will inherit the cultural heritage in the future. This workshop was planned and conducted by Ms. YAMADA Ayano, an Associate Fellow of the Japan Center for International Cooperation in Conservation, and held on the morning of April 30, 2023. The theme of the first workshop was “Pyramid.” In total, 90 people gathered at the workshop: 33 groups including 36 elementary students.
In the first half of the program, lectures on the history of the pyramids and the livelihoods of their builders were presented by two lecturers, Ms. YAMADA and Ms. FUKUDA Lisa, who is currently attending a doctoral course at the graduate school of Waseda University. By including topics that are not mentioned in the school textbooks but were revealed by archaeological and historical studies, we surmised that the children could imagine being close to the ancient civilization by comparing it with their own daily and school life.
In the second half of the program, we provided two bodily sensation programs outside the classroom lectures. One was an experience in which the participants watched a VR of the pyramid site wearing VR goggles. The other was an experience attraction in which they passed through a model corridor or into a model sarcophagus reproduced at 1:1 scale, watching a virtual tour inside the great pyramid. The materials used in the workshop are available to watch and experience at home. We aimed for effective retention of learning, by providing an opportunity of experience that the children will continue and repeat many times after the limited time of workshop.
Positioning initiatives for the next generation, such as this workshop, as an extension of research, we intend to plan a second Cultural Heritage Kids Workshop.