The Bay Area Discovery Museum will address the need for STEM education by delivering engineering outreach programming to schools and libraries throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. The museum's mobile engineering lab, Try It Truck, will introduce the engineering design process to students and teachers in grades K-5 with hands-on activities (both on and off the truck) where they can collaborate, experiment, and design solutions to engineering challenges. The Try It Truck will serve 21,600 children, parents, and educators throughout the Bay Area, with at least 50 percent of all participants coming from underserved communities and Title I schools. The museum will work with an external evaluator to design survey instruments for both formative and summative evaluation, analyze summative evaluation data, and produce a report. Museum staff will share project results with colleagues at national and statewide conferences.
The Hands On Children's Museum will build on two of its most distinctive features-an Outdoor Discovery Center and a Young Makers program-to create a Nature Makers program. The interdisciplinary project will link nature-based learning with maker activities that use natural materials. Partnerships with Native American tribes, scientists, maker groups, and others will enrich the staff-led offerings. Nature Makers addresses two of the most significant needs in early learning-inspiring early STEM education and connecting children with the outdoors. Nature Makers will increase children's exposure to outdoor tinkering to build the foundation for STEM success in school; educate parents, caregivers, and teachers about the important role outdoor exploration plays in STEM achievement; and stimulate children's curiosity about the natural world and increase the time they spend outside. Evaluation findings will be shared internally to inform continuous improvement of program offerings, and externally to serve as a model for outdoor making activities.
The Children's Museum at La Habra's Lil' Innovators Early Childhood STEM project will increase STEM skill and engagement among early childhood preschool teachers, disadvantaged preschoolers, and their parents. Delivered in partnership with three of La Habra's Head Start and California State Preschool program schools, the project will provide 224 preschoolers and 20 teachers with a year-long program offering increased developmental skills in STEM for underserved, low-income Hispanic students who are primarily English Language Learners. Teacher outcomes will include improved strategies for teaching STEM and increased teaching quality of STEM subjects. Parent outcomes include increased belief in the importance of STEM and increased ability to support their child's STEM learning. The standards-based education project will improve the museum's ability to serve its public by creating a community of practice consisting of a network of administrators, educators, and evaluators who will work together to improve the quality of STEM education for the youngest learners in this academically-challenged community.
This critical discourse analysis examined climate change denial books intended for children and parents as examples of pseudo-educational materials reproduced within the conservative echo chamber in the United States. Guided by previous excavations in climate change denial discourses, we identified different types of skepticism, policy frames, contested scientific knowledge, and uncertainty appeals. Findings identify the ways these children's books introduced a logic of non-problematicity about environmental problems bolstered by contradictory forms of climate change skepticism and polarizing
PEEP Family Science is designed for parents and their three- to five-year-old children, especially those from low-income families who are served by home visiting organizations. A media-based project featuring the preschool public television science program PEEP and the Big Wide World, it includes animated stories, live-action videos with real children, hands-on science activities, and educational resources designed to support parents and home visiting educators. PEEP Family Science comes in the form of four apps, one for each science unit: ramps, colors, sounds, and shadows. Once downloaded
Media can play a critical role in engaging children, parents, and educators in science. Listen in to WGBH’s Executive Producer for PEEP, Marisa Wolsky, and children’s app developer, Jillian Orr, as they talk about the new app, PEEP FAMILY SCIENCE, that can help parents confidently engage in science with their children.
The PEEP Family Science apps were designed specifically for low-income parents and their preschool children to explore science together at home. A major issue we confronted early on in the design and development was how families would be able to access the PEEP media, which included videos from the award-winning children's show, PEEP and the Big Wide World. Many of the families we tested the apps with did not have reliable internet connections. We initially made the decision to choose an app format instead of a website to help bridge the digital divide. But the app format has also enabled us
For at-risk children who cannot attend preschool, accessing science activities depends almost entirely on parents—but many parents have limited skills for supporting such learning. PBS station WGBH has recently launched a series of free family apps based on the Emmy Award-winning preschool science series, PEEP and the Big Wide World. The apps were developed to be used jointly by parent and child for a shared learning experience. Available on Google Play and the App Store in both Spanish and English, PEEP Family Science apps cover the topics of shadows, sound, color, and ramps, respectively.
Engaging in science from a young age can provide children with a foundation for school readiness and future academic achievement. Recent research suggests that parents feel responsible for helping their children learn, but only about half of parents—and even fewer low-income parents—feel confident helping their children learn science. Even when parents value early STEM learning, providing enriching science experiences can sometimes be challenging. We know from prior research that educational media, such as videos, apps, and digital games, can play a valuable role in helping parents strengthen
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Megan SIlanderJennifer StilesGay Mohrbacher
NSTA Preschool Blog by Peggy Ashcroft features guest blog post authors, Michelle Cerrone, Gay Mohrbacher, and Megan Silander, who write about using digital media to support children’s interest in science topics, and discuss tips educators can use to support families using media to explore science with their preschool-age children, based on their research and development of the PEEP Family Science series of apps.
A growing body of research points to the importance of engaging children in science from an early age, for both their future trajectories in science careers and school readiness. For some children, preschool provides the chance to engage in meaningful science learning. But, for the 46% of American 3- and 4-year-olds who do not attend preschool, opportunities for science enrichment are limited. For such children, accessing science experiences depends almost entirely on parents. However, many parents have limited experience supporting such learning.
To help these parents and their young