RISES (Re-energize and Invigorate Student Engagement through Science) is a coordinated suite of resources including 42 interactive English and Spanish STEM videos produced by Children's Museum Houston in coordination with the science curriculum department at Houston ISD. The videos are aligned to the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills standards, and each come with a bilingual Activity Guide and Parent Prompt sheet, which includes guiding questions and other extension activities.
Since distance education has evolved over time and continues to evolve, and most recently been influenced and challenged by the COVID-19 pandemic, it is the position of the authors that the literature is not yet clear or definitive on what it can confidently state about what are tested best practices in distance education, especially when it comes to informal learning environments.
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 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.
Hands-on tinkering experiences can help promote more equitable STEM learning opportunities for children from diverse backgrounds (Bevan, 2017; Vossoughi & Bevan, 2014). Latine heritage families naturally engage in and talk about engineering practices during and after tinkering in a children’s museum (Acosta & Haden, in press). We asked how the everyday practice of oral stories and storytelling could be leveraged during an athome tinkering activity to support children’s informal engineering and spatial learning.
The goal of our project is to develop strategies that effectively engage autistic adolescents in informal STEM learning opportunities that promote the self-efficacy and interest in STEM careers that will empower them to seek out career opportunities in STEM fields.
The research aims are to:
1. Identify evidence-based strategies to engage autistic youth in informal STEM learning opportunities that are well matched to their attentional profiles:
Hypothesis 1: Pedagogical strategies vary in how engaging they are for people with diverse attentional profiles; people with more focused
Hero Elementary is a transmedia educational initiative aimed at improving the school readiness and academic achievement in science and literacy of children grades K-2. With an emphasis on Latinx communities, English Language Learners, youth with disabilities, and children from low-income households, Hero Elementary celebrates kids and encourages them to make a difference in their own backyards and beyond by actively doing science and using their Superpowers of Science. The project embeds the expectations of K–2nd NGSS and CCSS-ELA standards into a series of activities, including interactive games, educational apps, non-fiction e-books, hands-on activities, and a digital science notebook. The activities are organized into playlists for educators and students to use in afterschool programs. Each playlist centers on a meaningful conceptual theme in K-2 science learning.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Joan FreeseMomoko HayakawaBryce Becker
Hero Elementary is a transmedia educational initiative aimed at improving the school readiness and academic achievement in science and literacy of children grades K-2. With an emphasis on Latinx communities, English Language Learners, youth with disabilities, and children from low-income households, Hero Elementary celebrates kids and encourages them to make a difference in their own backyards and beyond by actively doing science and using their Superpowers of Science. The content is aligned with NGSS and CCSS-ELA for K–2.
This report describes a case study that examines the design and use
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Betsy McCarthyDaniel BrennerClaire MorganJoan FreeseMomoko Hayakawa