This is a compilation of front-end, formative, and a partial summative evaluations, and an exploratory study using the xMacroscope, a data visualization technology developed for generating data from an exhibit using data captured from visitor actions.
There is growing interest in stories as potentially powerful tools for science learning. In this mini-review article, we discuss theory and evidence indicating that, especially for young children, listening to and sharing stories with adult caregivers at home can make scientific ideas and inquiry practices meaningful and accessible. We review recent research offering evidence that stories presented in books can advance children’s science learning.
This assessment serves as the summative assessment of the IMLS-funded project at KU Biodiversity Institute and Natural History Museum: Natural History Mystery: Immersing families in a problem-solving game using museum collections. The assessment employs a mixed methods approach, in which both quantitative and qualitative data are collected. More specifically, quantitative data are generated from surveys that are administered to participants at the beginning and end of the game and analyzed by using descriptive statistics (i.e., mean, standard deviation, and histogram) and paired sample t-test
The University of Kansas Natural History Museum, in collaboration with the University of California Museum of Paleontology, will develop, test, and deploy an immersive educational game on the topic of evolution and common ancestry. The museum will frame the game with a narrative that involves tracing the origin of a zoonotic disease (infectious disease that is transmitted between species from animals to humans or from humans to animals). Played on the museum floor, the escape room-inspired game will explore innovative formats for museum learning and engagement. It is being designed for families with children ages 7 to 12, and by visiting groups of schoolchildren in grades 3 to 5.
Over a three-year period, the Lawrence Hall of Science will conduct research on the conversations of groups and families encountering an Augmented Reality (AR) experience in a museum environment. The research program will identify which design elements best facilitate conversations among groups of visitors, and determine if these conversations are both rich in scientific content and gender-balanced. The project will focus on four specific activities: understanding the learning associated with current AR activities, implementing design-based research to develop visitor conversation supports, designing and developing new AR programs with embedded conversation supports, and conducting iterative hypothesis-based research on how learning conversations happen in AR learning environments. The museum community will gain insights on design principles for supporting collaborative learning using AR. Project staff will disseminate results via conference workshops for museum professionals on designing AR to enhance family learning, and through publication in professional journals.
This project is funded by the EHR Core Research (ECR) program, which supports work that advances fundamental research on STEM learning and learning environments, broadening participation in STEM, and STEM workforce development. It responds to continuing concerns about racial and social inequities in STEM fields that begin to emerge in the early childhood years. The overarching goal of the project is to identify cultural strengths that support early science learning opportunities among Spanish-speaking children from immigrant Latin American communities, a population that is traditionally underrepresented in STEM educational and career pursuits. Building on a growing interest in the ways stories can promote early engagement in and understanding of science, this project will investigate the role of oral and written stories as culturally relevant and potentially powerful tools for making scientific ideas and inquiry practices meaningful and accessible for young Latinx children. Findings will reveal ways that family storytelling practices can provide accessible entry points for Latinx children's early science learning, and recommend methods that parents and educators can use to foster learning about scientific practices that can, in turn, increase interest and participation in science education and fields.
The project will advance knowledge on the socio-cultural and familial experience of Latinx children that can contribute to their early science learning and skills. The project team will examine the oral story and reading practices of 330 Latinx families with 3- to 5-year-old children recruited from three geographic locations in the United States: New York, Chicago, and San Jose. Combining interviews and observations, the project team will investigate: (1) how conversations about science and nature occur in Latinx children's daily lives, and (2) whether and to what extent narrative and expository books, family personal narratives, and adivinanzas (riddles) engender family conversations about scientific ideas and science practices. Across- and within-site comparisons will allow the project team to consider the immediate ecology and broader factors that shape Latinx families’ science-related views and practices. Although developmental science has long acknowledged that early learning is culturally situated, most research on early STEM is still informed by mainstream experiences that largely exclude the lived experiences of children from groups underrepresented in STEM, especially those who speak languages other than English. The proposed work will advance understanding of stories as cultural resources to support early science engagement and learning among Latinx children and inform the development of high quality, equitable informal and formal science educational opportunities for young children.
The Discovery Center at Murfree Spring will partner with Mid-Cumberland Head Start to launch the SPARK! Head Start program to reach under-resourced early learners, families, and teachers in Rutherford County, Tennessee. Building on its successful STEM programming that integrates science with children's books, the museum will increase connections between science and literacy skills for 132 pre-K children ages three to five, and enhance the capacity of 16 teachers and two administrators within Rutherford County. Head Start will integrate and embed literacy and science process skills through hands-on STEM activities linked to children's literature and best practices. The project will also include programming designed to increase family engagement in STEM at the museum and at partnering Head Start centers.