Playscapes are intentionally designed nature-focused play environments for young children where children learn through exploration, discovery, play and adult supported provocations. The primary objective of this ongoing research-in-service to practice project is to engage in a collaborative mixed methods study to investigate aspects of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) learning with regard to playscape design, teacher efficacy, children’s learning, and dosage effects. It builds upon a previous NSF Pathways study.
The goal of this poster is to showcase the usable research and
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Victoria CarrRhonda BrownHeidi KloosLeslie KochanowskiSue SchlembachCatherine Maltbie
What if researchers and interpreters had a better way of eliciting, supporting and extending the interests that visitors bring with them to the park? This poster describing the iSWOOP project was presented at the 2019 NSF AISL Principal Investigators Meeting.
The Signing Glossaries are six new apps researched and developed for families with at least one member who is deaf and hard of hearing. Each glossary provides access to thousands of signed terms and definitions encountered in visits to aquariums, botanical gardens, natural history museums, nature centers, science museums, and zoos.
Deaf and hard of hearing children typically have literacy levels that lag behind those of their hearing peers, making access to captions, labels, instructions, and information difficult. This, in combination with a lack of interpreters to sign material for them
This poster was presented at the 2018 Visitor Studies Association Conference. iSWOOP is a multi-year, multi-focus project, bringing national park-based research to visitors through innovative scientist-park ranger collaborations.
As part of this study, researchers at the Institute for Learning Innovation set out to understand how visitor interests emerge during interpreter-facilitated conversations in national parks; how visitor interests relate to topics and facilitation strategies used by interpreters; and to what degree interactions might spark or reinforce ongoing interests.