Children's Broad Interests and High 'Passion' in Science Experiences Revealed! Passion Tends to Decline with Higher Grades

Amid growing attention to disparities in children's experiences and interest in science and technology, the 'Iko-yo Institute for Children's Future and Life Skills'—the research arm of 'Iko-yo'—conducted a 2025 survey in collaboration with Kanagawa Prefecture's Science and Technology Group, Policy Bureau, as part of the 'Science Kanagawa' science and technology talent development initiative. Supervised by Associate Professor Toshihiro Kubo of the Faculty of Education, Yokohama National University (a National University Corporation), the survey was conducted from July 2025 to February 2026, targeting children who participated in science museums and science events (291 children) and general children (426 children).

The results revealed that children who participate in science experiences not only show a significantly higher interest in science compared to general children, but also demonstrate broader overall interests and higher 'passion' scores. Additionally, the more voluntarily children participate in science experiences, the more deeply it is linked to their sense of agency and self-determination. On the other hand, this survey also revealed a tendency for 'passion' to decline as children progress to higher grades.

※If this survey content is to be published or cited in any media, please contact our PR department (pr@actindi.net) prior to publication and include the credit 'Kanagawa Prefecture & Iko-yo Institute for Children's Future and Life Skills Analysis' and the article URL (https://research.iko-yo.net/solutions/research/13431.html) in the publication or citation.

<Key Points>

・What is Science Kanagawa? ・Children with science experience show clear 'love for science' and broader interests than general children ・General children with zero science experiences tend to concentrate their interests on 'videos' ・Children with science experience show generally higher 'passion' scores; those with zero experiences show lower scores ・Children who voluntarily participate in science experiences show higher interest in 'science experiments,' 'astronomy/space,' and 'robotics/programming' ・Experiences of interest expansion and self-determination in favorite activities may lead to voluntary participation in science experiences ・Passion may decline as grade level increases ・Summary

(This press release is partially excerpted from the 'Science Kanagawa 2025 Talent Development Survey Report.' Full report available here)

What is Science Kanagawa?

'Science Kanagawa' is an initiative by Kanagawa Prefecture aimed at conveying the joy of science to children who will shape the future and cultivating science and technology talent. In 2025, science museums, universities, research institutions, and companies within the prefecture collaborated to host science experience events for children and a digital stamp rally (using NFTs) for visiting multiple science museums.

As part of this framework, the talent development survey was conducted with the cooperation of Murabo! (Murata Manufacturing), Mitutoyo Measurement Museum, Silk Museum, News Park (Japan Newspaper Museum), Kawasaki City Global Warming Prevention Activity Promotion Center, participants in the Science Kanagawa Digital Stamp Rally (NFT), and participants in the Iko-yo Science Festa (hereinafter referred to as children with science experience).

For more details on Science Kanagawa, click here.

Children with science experience show clear 'love for science.' Their interests are broader than those of general children.

First, here are the results comparing interest areas between children with science experience (291 children) and general children (surveyed via Iko-yo's panel, 426 children).

Source: Science Kanagawa 2025 Talent Development Survey, Iko-yo Institute for Children's Future and Life Skills Analysis

Children with science experience show particularly high interest in 'science' and also show differences in 'reading' compared to general children. Furthermore, they generally show a broader range of interests.

On the other hand, general children showed higher interest than science-experienced children only in three areas: 'anime,' 'videos,' and 'SNS.' This suggests that various experiential activities, including science experiences, may serve as triggers for curiosity and broaden interests.

General children with zero science experiences tend to concentrate their interests on 'videos'

Next, here are the results for 'most interesting field' (single response).

Source: Science Kanagawa 2025 Talent Development Survey, Iko-yo Institute for Children's Future and Life Skills Analysis

Among general children, especially those with zero science experiences in the past year, responses were concentrated on 'videos,' 'games,' and 'sports.'

Such concentration was not observed among children with science experience, who showed higher dispersion and diversity in interests. It is important not only to be concerned about children passively watching videos or playing games, but also to create more active curiosity triggers through experiential activities such as science museums and events.

Children with science experience have generally higher 'passion' scores; those with zero experiences show lower scores

We analyzed the relationship between science experience and 'children's passion (※1).'

Source: Science Kanagawa 2025 Talent Development Survey, Iko-yo Institute for Children's Future and Life Skills Analysis

※Average values are calculated by assigning 7 points to 'strongly agree' and 1 point to 'strongly disagree' across seven options.

When comparing items related to 'children's passion,' children with science experience showed generally higher scores than general children across all passion-related items.

For details, please refer to the 'Science Kanagawa' 2025 Talent Development Survey Report.

View details

Children who voluntarily participate in science experiences show higher interest in 'science experiments,' 'astronomy/space,' and 'robotics/programming'

Next, focusing on motivation for participation in science experiences, we compared 'children who participated voluntarily (answered 'came because I wanted to')' and 'children who were brought (answered 'came because it was okay' or 'was just brought').'

A slightly higher proportion of girls were found among children who were brought. In terms of grade level, fourth graders were more prevalent among those who participated voluntarily.

The following graph shows whether there are differences in interest areas between children who participated voluntarily and those who were brought.

Source: Science Kanagawa 2025 Talent Development Survey, Iko-yo Institute for Children's Future and Life Skills Analysis

Children who participated voluntarily showed particularly high interest in 'science experiments,' 'astronomy/space,' and 'robotics/programming' within science fields. The difference in 'science experiments' was especially notable.

For details, please refer to the 'Science Kanagawa' 2025 Talent Development Survey Report.

View details

Experiences of interest expansion and self-determination in favorite activities may lead to voluntary participation in science experiences

We analyzed the differences in 'children's passion' between children who participated voluntarily in science experiences and those who were brought.

Children who participated voluntarily showed higher levels of the following three perceptions compared to those who were brought:

'The activity I like most gives me a trigger to develop interest'

'The activity I like most coexists with things I have to do at school or home'

'I can usually choose what I want to do myself'

In other words, experiences where interest expands through favorite activities (