This project will teach foundational computational thinking (CT) concepts to preschoolers by creating a series of mobile apps to guide families through sequenced sets of videos and hands-on activities. To support families at home it would also develop a new library model to build librarians' computational thinking content knowledge and self-efficacy so they can support parents' efforts with their children. Computational thinking is a an increasingly critical skill for learning and success in the workforce. It includes the ability to identify problems, brainstorm and generate solutions and processes that can be communicated and followed by computers or humans. There are few projects that introduce computational thinking to young children. Very little research has been done on the ways that parents can facilitate children's engagement in CT skills. And developing a model that trains and supports librarians to become virtual coaches of parents as they engage with their children in CT, will leverage and build the expertise of librarians. The project's target audience includes parents and children living in rural areas where access to CT learning may be very limited. Project partners include the EDC, a major research organization, the American Library Association, and BUILD, a national association that promotes collaborations across library, kindergarten readiness, and public media programming.
The formative research study asks: 1) What supports do parents of preschoolers in rural communities need in order to effectively engage in CT with their children at home? and 2) How can libraries in rural communities support joint CT exploration in family homes? The summative research study asks: 3) how can an intervention that combines media resources, mobile technology, and library supports foster sustained joint parent/child engagement and positive attitudes around CT? Researchers will develop a parent survey, adapting several scales from previously developed instruments that ask parents to report on children's use of CT-related vocabulary and CT-related attitudes and dispositions. Survey scales will assess librarians' attitudes towards CT, as well as their self-efficacy in supporting parents in CT in a virtual environment. During the formative study, EDC will pilot-test survey scales with 30 parents and 6 librarians in rural MS and KY. Analyses will be primarily qualitative and will be geared toward producing rapid feedback for the development team. Quantitative analyses will be used on parent app use, using both time query and back-end data, exploring factors associated with time spent using apps. The summative study will evaluate how the new media resources and mobile technology, in combination with the library virtual implementation model, support families' joint engagement with CT, and positive attitudes around CT. The researchers will recruit 125 low-income families with 4- to 5-year-old children in rural MS and KY to participate in the study. They will randomly assign families within each library to the full intervention condition, including media resources, mobile technology, and library support delivered through the virtual implementation model, or the media and mobile-technology-only condition. This design will allow researchers to understand more fully the additional benefit of library support for rural families' sustained engagement, and conversely, see the comparative impact of a media- and mobile-technology only intervention, given that some families might not be able to access virtual or physical library support.
As part of its overall strategy to enhance learning in informal environments, the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program seeks to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments. This includes providing multiple pathways for broadening access to and engagement in STEM learning experiences, advancing innovative research on and assessment of STEM learning in informal environments, and developing understandings of deeper learning by participants. This project is co-funded by the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program, which supports projects that build understandings of practices, program elements, contexts and processes contributing to increasing students' knowledge and interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and information and communication technology (ICT) careers.
This Innovations in Development award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
This project had three objectives to build knowledge with respect to advancing Informal STEM Education:
Plan, prototype, fabricate, and document a game-linked design-and-play STEM exhibit for multi-generational adult-child interaction utilizing an iterative exhibit design approach based on research and best practices in the field;
Develop and disseminate resources and models for collaborative play-based exhibits to the informal STEM learning community of practice of small and mid-size museums including an interactive, tangible tabletop design-and-play game and a related tablet-based game app for skateboarding science and technology design practice;
Conduct research on linkages between adult-child interactions and game-connected play with models in informal STEM learning environments.
Linked to these objectives were three project goals:
Develop tools to enable children ages 5-8 to collaboratively refine and test their own theories about motion by exploring fundamental science concepts in linked game and physical-object design challenge which integrates science (Newton’s Laws of Motion) with engineering (iterative design and testing), technology (computational models), and mathematics (predictions and comparisons of speed, distance, and height). [Linked to Objectives 1 & 3]
Advance the informal STEM education field’s understanding of design frameworks that integrate game environments and physical exhibit elements using tangibles and playful computational modeling and build upon the “Dimensions of Success” established STEM evaluation models. [Linked to Objectives 1 & 2]
Examine methods to strengthen collaborative learning within diverse families through opportunities to engage in STEM problem-based inquiry and examine how advance training for parents influences the extent of STEM content in conversations and the quality of interactions between caregivers and children in the museum setting. [Linked to Objectives 1 & 3]
The exhibit designed and created as a result of this grant project integrates skateboarding and STEM in an engaging context for youth ages 5 to 8 to learn about Newton’s Laws of Motion and connect traditionally underserved youth from rural and minority areas through comprehensive outreach. The exhibit design process drew upon research in the learning sciences and game design, science inquiry and exhibit design, and child development scholarship on engagement and interaction in adult-child dyads.
Overall, the project "Understanding Physics through Collaborative Design and Play: Integrating Skateboarding with STEM in a Digital and Physical Game-Based Children’s Museum Exhibit" accomplished three primary goals. First, we planned, prototyped, fabricated, and evaluated a game-linked design-and-play STEM gallery presented as a skatepark with related exhibits for adult-child interaction in a Children's Museum.
Second, we engaged in a range of community outreach and engagement activities for children traditionally underserved in Museums. We developed and disseminated resources for children to learn about the physics of the skatepark exhibit without visiting the Museum physically. For example, balance board activities were made portable, the skatepark video game was produced in app and web access formats, and ramps were created from block sets brought to off-site locations.
Third, we conducted a range of research to better understand adult-child interactions in the skatepark exhibit in the Children's Museum and to explore learning of physics concepts during physical and digital play. Our research findings collectively provide a new model for Children's Museum exhibit developers and the informal STEM education community to intentionally design, evaluate, and revise exhibit set-up, materials, and outcomes using a tool called "Dimensions of Success (DOS) for Children's Museum Exhibits." Research also produced a tool for monitoring the movement of children and families in Museum exhibit space, including time on task with exhibits, group constellation, transition time, and time in gallery. Several studies about adult-child interactions during digital STEM and traditional pretend play in the Museum produced findings about social positioning, interaction style, role, and affect during play.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Deb DunkhaseKristen MissallBenjamin DeVane
Cañada College will implement the STEM 4 ECE program, which will engage early childhood education (ECE) students in activities to increase their understanding of a comfort with STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) subjects. Through partnerships with the San Mateo County Office of Education, the Redwood City Public Library, and with ECE and STEM faculty, the program will offer workshops, online tutorials, and one-on-one support to assist ECE students in using library research to incorporate STEM topics in their coursework. The program will also expand the role of the library to serve as a place for interdisciplinary faculty collaboration while providing STEM resources to groups that have historically had limited access to them, specifically in minority communities.
In 2005, the Vermont Center for the Book (VCB) received funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to develop and implement a program called What's the BIG Idea? to help librarians change their children's story hours to include more mathematics and science content and vocabulary. The project resulted in the creation of a professional development seminar; a Librarian Manual with guidelines, activities and other information; parent kits for families to take home and use to reinforce and extend learning in math and science; and a website filled with ideas, bibliographies, and other
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Dawn JaramilloJudy NorthupShelley H. BilligVermont Center for the Book
What's the BIG Idea? will infuse STEM content and concepts into librarians' practice in order to establish the public library as the site of ongoing, developmentally appropriate, standards-based STEM programming for young children and their families. This project will facilitate the infusion of STEM content and concepts into all aspects of library service -- programming, collections development, displays, newsletters, and bibliographies. Science educators and advisors will review and critique the project's STEM content. Building on prior NSF-funded projects, an experienced team of STEM developers and trainers will provide librarians with the content, skills and processes needed to stimulate innovative STEM thinking. Vermont Center for the Book (VCB) will train and equip librarians from three different library systems -- Houston, Texas, the Clinton-Essex-Franklin Library System in New York and statewide in Delaware. The strategic impact of this project is ongoing STEM programming for children and families in large, small, urban and rural libraries. VCB will investigate these questions, among others: How can the public library become a STEM learning center? What information, knowledge, training and materials do librarians need to infuse appropriate science and mathematics language and process skills into their practice and programming? Who are the community partners who can augment that effort? How can the answers to these questions be disseminated nationally? Innovation stems from: 1) STEM content to incorporate into their current practice and 2) skills and processes to create their own STEM programming. In addition, the results will be transferable to a wide range of libraries throughout the nation. The Intellectual Merit lies in augmenting librarians' current expertise so that they can incorporate STEM content and materials into all aspects of the library, a universal community resource. The Broader Impact lies in creating a body of content and approaches to programming that librarians all over the country can use to infuse mathematics and science language and content into their interactions with peers, children, families and the community. This will allow inquiry into what and how new informal STEM knowledge and practice can be effectively introduced into a variety of library settings.