This evaluation report provides a brief review of the National Science Foundation (NSF) planning grant, Creating an Early Childhood STEM Ecosystem, as of August 2019. The purpose of the evaluation was to provide an external, independent overview of the work completed and some of the lessons learned to date.
Peg + Cat is a popular broadcast television series, developed by The Fred Rogers Company and airing on PBS, in which a girl named Peg and her sidekick, Cat, solve everyday problems using mathematics, creativity, persistence, and humor. Peg + Cat: Developing Preschoolers’ Early Math Skills was a three-year project, funded by the National Science Foundation, that aimed to impact children’s interest and engagement with mathematics, as well as their development of positive social-emotional skills. The project supported early math learning via the creation of additional Peg + Cat episodes, online
The Discovery Center for Evaluation, Research, and Professional Learning (Discovery Center) served as external evaluator for the STEM in the PlayScape project. The broad purpose of the evaluation was to provide annual feedback and a final summative assessment of the project’s ability to meet its stated objectives. Project objectives were to:
Create early childhood digital modules to promote STEM learning on playscapes.
Investigate the impact of trained teachers on children’s STEM learning on playscapes.
Investigate what critical elements of playscapes are portable and adaptable to
PEEP Family Science is a collaboration among the WGBH Education and Children’s Media teams, Education Development Center (EDC) researchers and staff, and parents participating in programs with two home visiting organizations: AVANCE in Texas and HIPPY in Arkansas. The project aims to foster joint media engagement and hands-on science exploration among diverse, low-income 3- to 5-year-old children and their parents through the development and testing of an app-based science intervention. This report presents the project background, research questions, study method, and findings of the research
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Megan SilanderMichelle CerroneLeslie CuellarLindsey HiebertJennifer Stiles
The Practitioners and Researchers Investigating Sensorimotor Movement (PRISM) Toolkit provides a suite of observation tools for identifying and categorizing gestures, movement, and speech for interactive museum exhibits (espeically those that involve full-body interactions). The tools can be used live in some settings when appropriate, but also can be used on video recordings of exhibit interactions.
This annual report presents an overview of Saint Louis Science Center audience data gathered through a variety of evaluation studies conducted during 2017. This report includes information on the Science Center's general public audience demographics and visitation patterns, gives an overview of visitors' comments about their Science Center experience, summarizes major trends observed in the Science Center's tool for tracking educational programs, and presents highlights from front-end evaluation on the topic of infrastructures and summative evaluation of the GROW exhibition.
“Monkeying Around: Digital Media and Parent/Child Engagement Resources to Increase Preschool Computational Thinking” is a new project that uses animation, live-action videos, and hands-on activities to support joint engagement of children and caregivers around computational thinking concepts and practices. WGBH, a leading producer of educational STEM media, developed prototypes of videos and hands-on activities around the project’s computational thinking learning goals for young children. Education Development Center (EDC), WGBH’s research partner for the project, conducted a small formative
National Air and Space Museum, Washington DC
Summative Evaluation for Educational Program, 2016
The National Air and Space Museum (NASM) contracted Randi Korn & Associates, Inc. (RK&A) to conduct a summative evaluation of Science in Pre-K, an onsite and online teacher professional development program that NASM developed for the District of Columbia Public Charter Schools’ (DCPS). The program supports preschool teachers in teaching science through exploration and problem solving. This evaluation is a continuation of a planning and evaluation project initiated in 2013. In 2013, RK&A
PEEP and the Big Wide World/El Mundo Divertido de PEEP is a bilingual, NSF- funded public media project that uses animation, live-action videos, games, mobile apps, hands-on science activities to motivate preschool-age children to investigate the world around them. Online, PEEP extends children’s science and math learning with a mobile-friendly website that offers games, videos, and hands-on activities, as well as a collection of 15 apps. PEEP is also reaching children in preschool classrooms and family/home childcare settings via the PEEP Science Curriculum, which provides resources for a
NatureStart Network brought together early childhood educators and environmental educators to support nature play, exploration, and inquiry for young children and their families within urban environments. Project partners included the Forest Preserves of Cook County and two established Head Start programs in the Chicago area, Mary Crane Center and El Valor. The foundation of the project was a series of three two-day professional learning sessions that took place over an eighteen month period. Through hands-on, collaborative learning and reflection activities, the participating educators
Science from the Start (SFTS) was a two-year early childhood program funded by IMLS, with matching funds from the Sciencenter. The goal of SFTS was to empower teachers, parents, and caregivers to do more science with their students and children. Although the SFTS program continues today,this final summary report describes the results of the initial two-year pilot project only.