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
Communication is an essential component to scientific inquiry, and specifically the primary literature is highly valued by scientists. Yet, the role of primary literature within scientific inquiry is generally absent from the science classroom. In this study we examined how middle and high school student perceptions of scientific inquiry changed after they engaged in a peer-review and publication process of their research papers. We interviewed twelve students who published their papers in the [Journal], a science journal dedicated to publishing the research of middle and high school students
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Sarah FankhauserGwendolynne ReidGwendolyn MirzoyanClara MeadersOlivia Ho-Shing
Future educational robots are emerging as social companions supporting learning. By socially interacting with such a robot, learners can potentially reason and talk about the things they are learning and receive help in seeing the relevance of STEM in their daily lives. However, little is known about how to design educational robots to work with youth at home over a long period of time. This project will develop an informal science learning program, called STEMMates, in collaboration with a local community center, for youth with little interest in science. The program will partner learners with an in-home learning companion robot, designed to read books with youth and provide science activities for them at the community center, where youth will engage in exciting and personally relevant science learning. As the learner reads books, the robot will make comments about what is happening in the book to help connect the reading to the science activities at the community center. The overarching goals of STEMMates are to: (a) positively support youth's individual interest in science and future science learning, (b) connect in-home learning experiences with out-of-school community-based learning, (c) bridge the gap between formal and informal engagement and learning in science, and (d) encourage the participation of youth who are underrepresented and who have low interest in STEM learning. This project is funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning program, which seeks to advance new approaches to and evidence-based understanding of the design and development of STEM learning opportunities for the public in informal environments.
Researchers will work with youth and staff at the community center, alongside experts in informal science learning, to design the program and then test how learners respond to reading with the robot and participating in the science activities and whether this program has a lasting impact on their science interest. Social interactions with a robot may help distribute cognitive load during learning activities to help youth reason about STEM and also supplement learning by improving feelings of value and belongingness in order to facilitate lasting interest development. Following a mixed-methods research approach using qualitative and quantitative data-collection techniques, the research team will investigate the following research questions: (1) What social and interest-development supports and activities can be utilized as socially situated interest scaffolds in an informal and in-home, augmented reading and science activity program to promote individual interest and learning in science for low interest learners? How can a social robot best facilitate this program? (2) How do learners perceive and interact with the robot in authentic, in-home, long-term situations, and how does this interaction change over time? (3) Does working with a robot designed with socially situated interest scaffolds increase individual interest in science when compared to a pre-intervention baseline, and do these effects impact future (long-term) interest and engagement in formal science learning? To answer these research questions, researchers will implement the science learning program during an 11-week summer deployment and utilize an AB single-case research design. Interview-based qualitative data and self-report surveys to examine the learner?s perception of the robot and their evolving interest in science and quantitative data on science learning using pre-/post-measure comparisons will be collected. Log data of time-on-task, reading rate, book selection and reading goal attainment will also be collected by the robot. The outcomes of this project will lay the groundwork for future investigations of the design of social robots for a diversity of learner populations and their use in different informal learning settings.
This project is funded by the National Science Foundation's (NSF's) Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program, which supports innovative research, approaches, and resources for use in a variety of learning settings.
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
This poster was presented at the 2016 Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) PI Meeting held in Bethesda, MD on February 29-March 2. Through My Window is engineering education that applies research from the learning sciences—including the use of cognitive tools such as narrative and knowledge building—in an idea-centered digital environment. Together these approaches support deep learning and address the critical need of preparing young learners to participate in the knowledge society. The curriculum includes young adult novels; interactive, online learning modules; and offline enrichment
Developing the ability to read and critically assess science-themed media reports is of great importance, given the media’s pervasive and powerful influence on people’s beliefs and behaviours. This study examines a technique designed to develop high school students’ critical reading abilities. Findings suggest a progression from blind belief toward the ability to draw conclusions based on scientific information.