Please Touch Museum Object

ShopRite Supermarket in the City Capers Exhibit

I chose the ShopRite Supermarket space that is located in the City Capers Exhibit at the Please Touch Museum.  This "object" is a tool that is used by children to play and explore ideas and concepts that are adult.  This exhibit is intended to show children how cities work and how buying groceries contributes to the city.  Children find this object to be very important because performing adult tasks engages them and is also fun.  It is also important to parents because it good to see how children apply the things that they learn in public, into their own imaginations and play.

By setting up the ShopRite exhibit, children can take what they learn when they are at actual shopping markets with their parents and apply it in this display.  It is a way for the children to recognize that they know the roles that are needed, and then they take on the roles in order to fully understand how everything works.  This object was most likely acquired through funds contributed from ShopRite.  This is a way for the supermarket chain to receive advertising, as well allows the museum to educate children about society.   

The ShopRite Supermarket is displayed surrounded by other city exhibits; such as, a construction zone, Children's Hospital Medical Center, and a shoe store.  Having the supermarket placed near all of these other city spaces, it allows children to make the connection that these real-life places can be part of the make-believe playing.  Inside of the Supermarket are shopping carts, cash registers, and shelves stocked with groceries (empty boxes with real packaging). Children are free to roam around the grocery store with a shopping cart and take items off of the shelf and pretend to be purchasing them.  

Signage on top of the grocery shelves

The point of view that is on the signs in the ShopRite Supermarket are short phrases that tell the children to clean up after they are done playing in the market.  The wording is simple, and in the sign above, it rhymes.  It is short and simple so that older children can read it easily and that when parents read the signs to smaller children they will understand it more easily.  There were also flyers that parents could grab that had a recipe on it.  Not only are children being engaged in the museum setting, but they can also go home and bake with their families.   

 

In order to understand why the museum has exhibits such as this, it could be important to understand educational psychology and the different theories that mention developmental learning stages, different types of learning, and how children learn through the act of play.  Montessori is a psychologist that inspired the development of the Please Touch Museum, his theories are further explained here.  Older children might not be interested in this object because they have already furthered their understanding about these societal aspects.  Different psychological learning theories might tell a different story about this object.  One might think that children will not actually be learning anything through this type of experience, and therefore would eliminate the purpose of the museum.

I think that another way to get children engaged with this object would be to have a specific play time everyday that would ask any child who wants to participate to take the roles of the ShopRite staff and customers.  This would engage the children with each other and enhance what they might learn, because the children would be sharing knowledge that they might already have.  Overall, this exhibit is great and kids really love it!