Recent studies indicate that contact with nature is important for children’s development, and supports creativity, wellbeing, problem solving and empathy with nature as adults. Researchers raise concerns that this experience is being eroded by a decline in green spaces (especially in cities) and an increasingly risk averse society (Bragg et al.2013; Louv 2005; Moss 2012; Pretty et al. 2009).Whilst direct experiences of nature may be increasingly rare for young children, Kellert’s work on biophilia and child development (2005) suggests that indirect experiences with nature, such as those occurring during a museum visit, may be able to compensate for this. Within this context, Manchester Museum developed Nature Discovery (opened in December 2014), a gallery aimed at engaging under-5s and their parents with nature. As well as drawing from existing studies of young children in museums, the gallery responded to research carried out with local parents, young children and teachers. This research focused on documenting parent and child interactions during a series of child-led, family visits to the existing natural history galleries and further visits by different families to evaluate the new gallery (2015).Using existing nature connection measures (Cheng and Munro 2012; Ernst and Theimer 2011), the results suggest that natural history objects can support a connection to nature, which may result in environmentally friendly behaviours in adulthood. Parent and child interaction is identified as a key characteristic of supporting a connection to nature and in supporting children’s learning.

In May 2017, a group of museum researchers and practitioners met to discuss the writing of Elee Kirk (1977-2016), whose pioneering doctoral study of young children visiting a natural history museum connects with our own work and practice in a number of different ways. Kirk (2015) advocates for research that views children's everyday museum visiting "beyond their potential for learning." (p.238). This paper offers edited transcripts of the discussion sparked by reading Kirk (2015), documenting the conversation under a number of themes that emerged during the discussion, and reflecting on how each are picked up in more detail by the papers in this Special Issue. In May 2017, a group of museum researchers and practitioners met to discuss the writing of Elee Kirk, whose pioneering doctoral study of young children visiting a natural history museum connects with our own work and practice in a number of different ways. Elee presented a keynote at the 'Research Methods for Exploring Children's Experiences in Museums' conference held in May 2016, one of the impetuses for this special issue. Although we did not know at the time, this would be amongst the last occasions Elee presented her research, as she sadly passed away on 1 st August 2016. Her untimely death, due to cancer, meant that she would not be able to personally write a contribution to this special issue, or be involved in its guest editing, both things we would very much have liked. Elee devoted energy in the last months of her life to disseminating her research, with the

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