Numeracy is not a luxury: numbers constantly factor into our daily lives. Yet adults in the United States have lower numeracy than adults in most other developed nations. While formal statistical training is effective, few adults receive it – and schools are a major contributor to the inequity we see among U.S. adults. That leaves news well-poised as a source of informal learning, given that news is a domain where adults regularly encounter quantitative content. Our transdisciplinary team of journalists and social scientists propose a research agenda for thinking about math and the news. We
Early childhood is a critical time for developing foundational knowledge, skills, and interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). For that reason, the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) places a great priority on developing early childhood STEM content, especially through its television shows that are watched by over 60% of young children in the United States. Research suggests that adding in-the-moment interaction to television watching promotes learning and engagement. Toward this end, researchers from the University of California, Irvine and PBS KIDS have prototyped interactive versions of science shows that children view on internet-connected devices while they communicate with the main character powered by an AI conversational agent. Pilot studies show that when children watch these new interactive videos with the main character pausing periodically to ask probing questions about the learning goals of the episode and following up with appropriate responses, they are more engaged and learn more about science, with heightened benefits for children who speak languages other than English at home. Based on these early results, in this Innovations in Development project the research team will develop, test and produce publicly available conversational episodes for two PBS KIDS television shows, one focused on science and the other on computational thinking.
The project will iteratively study and develop six conversational videos with novel forms of support for children, including extended back-and-forth conversation that builds upon a child's responses, visual scaffolding that facilitates verbal communication, and bilingual language processing so that children can answer in English or Spanish. The conversational videos will be evaluated in both lab-based and home settings. The lab-based study will involve 600 children ages 3-7 in a predominantly low-income Latino community in Southern California, in which researchers compare children’s learning and engagement when watching the conversational videos with three other formats: (1) watching the non-interactive broadcast version of the video; (2) watching the video with pseudo-interaction, in which the main character asks questions and gives a generic response after a fixed amount of time but can’t understand what the child says; or (3) watching the broadcast version of the video with a human co-viewer who pauses the video and asks questions. The home-based study will involve 80 families assigned to watch either the non-interactive or interactive videos as many times as they want over a month at home. In both the lab-based and home studies, pre- and post-tests will be used to examine the impact of video watching on science and language learning, and log data will be used to assess children’s verbalization and engagement while watching. Following the home study, the six videos will be further refined and made available for free to the public through the PBS KIDS apps and website, which are visited by more than 13 million users a month. Beyond providing engaging science learning opportunities to children throughout the country, this study will yield important insights into the design, usability, feasibility, and effectiveness of incorporating conversational agents into children’s STEM-oriented video content, with implications for extending this innovation to other educational media such as e-books, games, apps, and toys.
This Innovations in Development project is funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program.
DATE:
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Mark WarschauerSilvia LovatoAndres BustamanteAbby JenkinsYing Xu
This Pilot and Feasibility study will build foundational knowledge about basic aspects of STEM webcams in the United States (US) from the perspectives of both practitioners and viewers. Thousands of webcams available to the public are operated by STEM organizations, such as zoos, museums, and government agencies. Learning theory suggests that STEM webcams, especially those with accompanying interpretive tools, have the potential to offer rich informal learning opportunities. However, yet no research has quantified any aspect (cognitive, behavioral, or emotional) of viewer outcomes. This study will be the first to develop baseline data regarding cognitive, behavioral, and emotional aspects of perceived viewer experience. Project activities include:
An inventory of STEM webcams that exist in the US, the STEM disciplines they represent, learning and engagement tools they employ, the number of viewers they reach, and the resources required for their operation
A survey of webcam operators, their STEM education goals, implementation strategies, and evaluation results; and
Surveys and interviews gathering data on viewers demographics and potential increase in curiosity, interest, knowledge, and behavior toward the STEM subject. This research will provide foundational knowledge for the STEM-education and research community that quantifies and describes many facets of the population of STEM webcams in the inventory.
Research activities will take place in three distinct phases, with Phase 1 laying the groundwork for Phases 2 and 3. Phase 1: The project team will conduct a systematic internet search for all identifiable STEM related webcams. Phase 2 (operator-focused): An online survey of practitioners of webcams operated by US-based STEM organizations will be conducted using Qualtrics software. Likert scales will be used. Various hypotheses will be tested regarding webcam program objectives, operations, and evaluations from the perspective of program operators or practitioners. Phase 3 (viewer-focused): Surveys and interviews with likely viewers of STEM webcams. Using the webcam inventory built in Phase 1, the team will collaborate with 20 informal STEM institutions that agree to survey their constituents to test hypotheses regarding webcam viewing practices, such as why and how viewers watch, and perceived outcomes of viewing, such as perceived influence on their interest, attitudes, knowledge, or behavior. The findings from this study will be widely shared with informal STEM institutions and webcam operators. It will provide foundational data for future experimental studies.
Kid-focused STEM podcasts have grown in popularity over the years, but the ISE field lacks knowledge of the impact and value of this medium as a means for engaging children and families in science learning and discovery. This research summary shares the results of an exploratory study of the popular children's science podcast, Brains On!, in an effort to being to fill this knowledge gap.
The research was guided by three overarching research questions:
Who is the audience for Brains On! and what are their motivations for listening to children’s science podcasts?
How are Brains On
The Brains On! exploratory research study was guided by three overarching research questions:
Who is the audience for Brains On! and what are their motivations for listening to children’s science podcasts?
How are Brains On! listeners using the podcast and engaging with its content?
What kinds of impacts does Brains On! have on its audiences?
These questions were answered through a three-phase mixed-methods research design. Each phase informed the next, providing additional insights into answering the research questions. Phase 1 was a review of a sample of secondary data in the
In this paper, our collaborative project team shares design principles and lessons learned from research for designing an app to support families’ joint engagement with media and promote powerful shared learning experiences. We provide a rationale, based on research literature, for why a second-screen app in particular addresses our project goals. In addition, we describe the Splash and Bubbles for Parents app components as well as the co-design process and design-based research studies conducted to inform its design and development. Finally, our team offers design principles grounded in
The goal of this NSF-funded RAPID research project was to advance understanding of how children’s science podcasts can provide families with information to help ease children’s worries during a pandemic by increasing children’s understanding of pandemic-related science concepts and supporting pandemic-related family conversations. Our research was guided by the following questions:
1. How and to what extent do Brains On!’s coronavirus-based episodes help children and their families understand and talk about science-related pandemic topics?
2. What kinds of conversations are
This report, prepared for The Jim Henson Company, shares findings of a sub-study investigating the types of support parents and caregivers need when navigating and using the second-screen Splash and Bubbles for Parents app. This study originated from a prior field study finding indicating families would benefit from support around the app since it represents a new kind of digital tool. In partnership with local Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) stations, we provided parents and caregivers more detailed support around the features of the app. Based on survey and interview findings, parents and
The Splash and Bubbles for Parents app is a second-screen digital resource for parents and caregivers to support young children’s learning of ocean science. This report, prepared for The Jim Henson Company, shares findings of a field study conducted to examine the promise of the app in supporting parents’ and caregivers’ behaviors and attitudes toward science and technology; families’ joint engagement with media (adults and children watch and play together); and children’s science learning. Findings indicate that parents and caregivers found the app helpful for supporting their children’s
This paper reports on a new media-based tool designed to develop new knowledge about joint parent-child participation in science talk and practices using a second screen app synced with a television program, called Splash! Ask-Me: Ocean Adventures (Splash!).[1] With funding from the National Science Foundation, Splash! is an app designed to work in conjunction with a marine science-focused television program, Splash and Bubbles, for children 2-8 years old that premiered nationally on PBS Kids in fall of 2016.
The free app includes a variety of "conversation catalysts" tied to the television
In this paper, we examine the relationship between participants’ childhood science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) related experiences, their STEM identity (i.e., seeing oneself as a STEM person), and their college career intentions. Whereas some evidence supports the importance of childhood (i.e., K‐4) informal STEM education experiences, like participating in science camps, existing research does not adequately address their relationship to STEM career intention later in life. Grounding our work in identity research, we tested the predictive power of STEM identity on career
Research shows that news consumption plays a positive role in youths' environmental engagement. This article examines if this also holds true for sceptics by comparing Swedish climate change sceptics with non-sceptical youngsters in their early and late adolescence. We conceptualise news consumption as foci of public connection and orientation rather than a source of environmental information. The results show that in their early teens, heavy news consumers among both sceptics and non-sceptics are indeed more engaged with environmental issues than their less news-oriented peers. However, in