Girls met to engage with Through My Window twice each week after school. The afterschool program format provided a freer, less structured atmosphere than a classroom setting. Students extensively debated and investigated the questions and themes posed by the novel, Talk to Me. The meeting space had plenty of space for students to move around, as well as teachers who encouraged the expression of full emotional and intellectual enthusiasm for the story at hand.
East Longmeadow implemented Through My Window in two seventh grade classrooms, each teaching different subjects—creative reading and STEAM. Students used the print and audio versions of Talk to Me, and read or listened to the book independently and together, in class and at home. They also participated in both online and offline activities that, along with the book, helped them engage with ideas and propose solutions related to engineering challenges.
In prior research and development, the project team developed a StoryWorld, a computer-based intervention for English Learners (ELs) that presents children oral and written narratives in English while also providing the information in their first language. With this Phase I funding, the team will develop and test a prototype of a web-based dashboard that provides EL teachers real-time reports on children's progress in areas including for vocabulary, comprehension, fluency, and proficiency. At the end of Phase I, in a pilot study in three first grade classrooms, the researchers will examine whether the prototype functions as planned, is easy to use, and provides information teachers can understand and use to inform their language and literacy instruction?
Abstract
In 2011, Donna DiBartolomeo and Zachary Clark enrolled in the Arts in Education Program at Harvard Graduate School of Education. Harvard Graduate School of Education is home to Project Zero, an educational research group comprising multiple, independently funded projects examining creativity, ethics, understanding, and other aspects of learning and its processes. Under the guidance of Principal Investigator Howard Gardner and Project Manager Katie Davis, the authors were tasked with developing a methodology capable of observing finegrained, objective detail in complete works of
As infographics and other visual forms of data become increasingly common, many educators wonder how to best integrate them into learning activities. Polman and Gebre interviewed 10 experts in science representation to understand common practices they used for selecting and interpreting infographics. The authors build on study results to generate guidelines for educators' use of infographics.
Polman, Newman, Saul, and Farrar reflect on six years of work with a science journalism program for teens that fosters a version of science literacy centered on developing fluency in the application and use of science in personal life.
'TV411 What's Cooking?' provides adults with low levels of literacy and numeracy with access to a free multi-media resource which delivers mathematics and science content in the form of an online cooking show. This series builds on a prior NSF planning grant (DRL 07-75623) and the research-based design of the TV411 educational materials while addressing biochemical, physical, and mathematical processes that occur in cooking and daily life. The project will be managed by the Education Development Center's Adult Literacy Media Alliance (ALMA) project, in partnership with the Public Internet Channel, a New York-based Head Start Program, and formal education partners. The project's goals are to raise awareness of math and science content in daily life, overcome negative attitudes and behaviors related to science learning, and increase knowledge, vocabulary, and skills related to science and math while building capacity to use informal science education resources. Additional goals are to increase the capacity level of adult educators and informal workshop facilitators to teach basic math and science concepts. Finally, the project is designed to research strategies in which low-literacy adult learners utilize informal math and science resources in a Web 2.0 environment. Deliverables include six video segments that embed basic literacy and numeracy concepts in a cooking show format, 12 interactive web activities including games and simulations, and a reconstructed TV411 Online website with Web 2.0 features. In year 2, Spanish language videos and web lessons, customized toolkits for The Public Internet Channel, workshop materials for parents, and articles and reports for dissemination to education and informal learning networks nationwide are produced. The videos will be distributed on TV411 Online and the Public Internet Channel (pic.tv). The mixed-methods evaluation addresses four impact categories (awareness, engagement, attitudes, and behavior). An embedded evaluation approach will be used to determine knowledge gains, while behavioral and attitudinal questions will be asked separately in two web surveys given to random sample of 500 website visitors. Interviews are used to determine teacher perceptions of usability and effectiveness of materials. 'TV411 What's Cooking?' is projected to attract 1.5 million website visitors in the first year and an additional 500,000 each subsequent year. This well-researched project advances adult literacy and numeracy, while providing students participating in GED, adult basic education, and informal community-based programs with engaging STEM content.
A recent report by the Association for Computing Machinery estimates that by decade's end, half of all STEM jobs in the United States will be in computing. Yet, the participation of women and underrepresented groups in post-secondary computer science programs remains discouragingly and persistently low. One of the most important findings from research in computer science education is the degree to which informal experiences with computers (at many ages and in many settings) shape young people's trajectories through high school and into undergraduate degree programs. Just as early language and mathematics literacy begins at home and is reinforced throughout childhood through a variety of experiences both in school and out, for reasons of diversity and competency, formal experiences with computational literacy alone are insufficient for developing the next generation of scientists, engineers, and citizens. Thus, this CAREER program of research seeks to contribute to a conceptual and design framework to rethink computational literacy in informal environments in an effort to engage a broad and diverse audience. It builds on the concept of cultural forms to understand existing computational literacy practices across a variety of learning settings and to contribute innovative technology designs. As part of its overall strategy to enhance learning in informal environments, the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program funds new approaches to and evidence-based understanding of the design and development of STEM learning in these settings. This CAREER program of research seeks to understand the role of cultural forms in informal computational learning experiences and to develop a theoretically grounded approach for designing such experiences for youth. This work starts from the premise that new forms of computational literacy will be born from existing cultural forms of literacy and numeracy (i.e., for mathematical literacy there are forms like counting songs -- "10 little ducks went out to play"). Many of these forms play out in homes between parents and children, in schools between teachers and students, and in all sorts of other place between friends and siblings. This program of study is a three-phased design and development effort focused on key research questions that include understanding (1) how cultural forms can help shape audience experiences in informal learning environments; (2) how different cultural forms interact with youth's identity-related needs and motivations; and (3) how new types of computational literacy experiences based on these forms can be created. Each phase includes inductive research that attempts to understand computational literacy as it exists in the world and a design phase guided by concrete learning objectives that address specific aspects of computational literacy. Data collection strategies will include naturalist observation, semi-structured, and in-depth interviews, and learning assessments; outcome measures will center on voluntary engagement, motivation, and persistence around the learning experiences. The contexts for research and design will be museums, homes, and afterschool programs. This research builds on a decade of experience by the PI in designing and studying computational literacy experiences across a range of learning settings including museums, homes, out-of-school programs, and classrooms. Engaging a broad and diverse audience in the future of STEM computing fields is an urgent priority of the US education system, both in schools and beyond. This project would complement substantial existing efforts to promote in-school computational literacy and, if successful, help bring about a more representative, computationally empowered citizenry. The integrated education plan supports the training and mentoring of graduate and undergraduate students in emerging research methods at the intersection of the learning sciences, computer science, and human-computer interaction. This work will also develop publically available learning experiences potentially impacting thousands of youth. These experiences will be available in museums, on the Web, and through App stores.