In this article, the authors review a collaborative project between two developmental psychologists and the staff of Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose. Under the broad agenda of studying the development of scientific literacy, they have been exploring the hypothesis that the guidance of parents is an important bridge between the intentions of the exhibit designer and the experience and knowledge of the child. Their research is guided by a framework inspired by a combination of socio-cultural and information-processing theories of how children learn. In the first section of this article
The Please Touch Museum is requesting $684,602 for the development of educational resource materials in science and mathematics for four-year old children, and training for their parents and teachers in Head Start and other daycare programs. This 44 month project will develop, test, and produce six materials-based science and math activity kits, science training workshops for parents and daycare educators, and related family materials and events. It will culminate in a national dissemination program to promote more effective preschool science and math education through materials- based science inquiry and increased professional relations between educators in youth museums and daycare centers.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Marzy SykesRenee HenryTracey Prendergast
The Exploratorium is developing a model program that demonstrates the vital role science museum exhibits can play in supporting formal science education reform. The development of exhibitions and enhancement activities is based on the Science Framework for California Public Schools and the emerging National Science Education Standards. The project includes: A series of four museum exhibitions (with a total of 60 exhibits) based on the Science Framework themes of Patterns of Change, Stability, Scale and Structure, and Systems and Interactions Publications (Exhibit Guides and Pathways) for each collection A series of workshops and evening events for teachers, families and students A symposium, video and Internet resource for museum and education professionals An important feature is an information desk and resource kiosk to inform teachers, parents and the general public about science education reform efforts. The project aims at 5,000 teachers, 32,000 parents and caregivers, 140,000 students and 1,320,000 members of the general public.
Adding Families to the Equation in Appalachia is a multi-state collaborative effort to improve parental involvement in science, mathematics, and technology education in a region of Central Appalachia noted for its persistent poverty and isolation from opportunities. During the planning grant period, project staff and consultants will use key stakeholder groups to generate and test preliminary project ideas and will enhance and consolidate relationships among collaborative partners in 66 counties in six state of Central Appalachia. The planning is essential to build collaboration across the six states and to develop a strategy that will be successful in a region with low educational attainment and limited science and technology resources.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Wimberly RoysterDonna HallJoanne Lang
The Minnesota Children's Museum, in collaboration with the American Library Association will develop a project to engage children ages two through seven years old and their parents in exploring mathematics through hands-on, book-based math activities in libraries and children's museums across the country. The main elements of the project are: 1. A 1200 square foot exhibit at the Minnesota Children's Museum; 2. A traveling exhibit to ten children's museums over a six month period; 3. Five smaller versions of the exhibit will travel to 75 libraries sponsored by the American Library Association. Each library that apply for the exhibit must present a plan in which 50 percent of their exhibit audience will be children and families of the under-represented, lower income groups, and racial and/or ethnic groups. 4. Programs and materials will be designed to provide parents with the means to actively participate in their children's math education. The collaboration of the Minnesota Children's Museum and the American Library Association draws together two organizations whose natural constituencies are parents with young children. Project 1,2,3 is designed to be national in scope and creates multiple formats within which families can enjoy exploring math. Its goals and objectives reflect four messages: start early, math is everywhere, parental involvement and get into books. The project Principal Investigator (PI) Ms. Jeanne W. Vergeront received her Bachelor of Arts and Masters of Science in Child and Family Studies and Environmental Design, respectively from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Currently, she serves as the Vice President, Educational Projects at the Minnesota Children's Museum in St. Paul, Minnesota.
This project is a collaboration between the Miami Museum of Science and the Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Greater Miami (BBBS) to empower single-parent families to become actively engaged in the science, mathematics, and technology education (SMT) of their children. It will involve, over the course of the project, parents, mentors, and community elements to create and expand a resource network and support primarily father-absent homes. The design of the project is focused on providing resources and advocacy critical to the success of young children in SMT education. It is a project designed to get parents actively involved with their children's science, mathematics, and technology education. The program will serve Dade County, Florida families. Museum staff and volunteers of BBBS will work closely in the development of mentor materials to be nationally distributed. The strategies that are used and refined will be packaged in a Tripod Toolkit and Mentor Handbook that can be used by other community groups to aid and assist parents in becoming more active in the science, mathematics, and technology education of their children. In addition to the toolkit materials, a set of Science/math Matters activities will be included designed to promoted science learning in the home with parents and their children. These materials will be produced in both English and Spanish to meet the needs of a diverse and multicultural American society.
The National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering (NACME) is implementing a new, 41-month phase and augmentation of a national public service advertising campaign that was launched in 1995. The Math is Power campaign was developed by NACME in partnership with The Advertising Council toward the goal of creating an increase in the number of students who graduate from high school with prerequisite courses to enroll in any rigorous, math- or science-based undergraduate program. The current project is designed to reach all students but is especially targeted to groups currently underrepresented in math and science and will be anchored by highly directed television, radio, print, and outdoor advertising. The new phase will introduce a Math is Power interactive web site. The website will allow NACME to add direct services to the information packets that are sent to students and parents who respond to the public service advertising. It will include: content relevant, age appropriate math challenges, games, problems, and contests; a national registry of math opportunities where students, parents, and teachers can find mathematics resources; an on-line special events chat room; and a best practices bulletin board. NACME will coordinate their outreach efforts with services such as the Community Technology Center Network (CTCnet) in order to facilitate web access for youth and parents in disadvantaged neighborhoods. They also will work directly with 25 cities with the greatest numbers of citizens who fall in the target population. Math and Science education services in these cities will be able to localize much of the material through such means as placing a local tag on the television ads. In addition, the NACME production and distribution capabilities will be substantially expanded to meet the tremendous demand for Math Is Power materials.
This planning project, sponsored by Community School District #18 of the New York City Schools, will carry out planning activities intended to implement a district-wide parent involvement program as a supplement to the Science in the Seamless Day program currently in effect with NSF support. The planning activities will include day-long planning seminars with teachers and staff, ongoing planning sessions with parents, after school materials development sessions, travel to the Chicago TAMS project and travel to local science, math and technology resource institutions. The final proposal will include parent preparation and training activities, family "discovery" workshops, take-home activities and parent leadership development. The project staff will be helped by a wide variety of partners which have been active in district programs. The matching funds constitute about 10% of the NSF award.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Barbara BergLorraine BarberIrene FortunatoHeidi Ludwig
The Institute for Research on Learning is undertaking a multifaceted effort to help parents become more involved in the mathematics education of their children. This project establishes a Design Consortium; develops new materials and collaborative activity structures; provides outreach, training, and technical assistance to communities; and disseminates these products to the educational community. The design consortium creates contexts for raising parent participation in communities where it is most needed and uses these contexts to plan and construct mathematics materials based on issues parents face in everyday life. The outreach activities include planning support and workshops for schools, community organizations, and parent groups. Dissemination is done through presentations and talks and through research articles.
The Developmental Studies Center is supporting the active involvement of parents in their children's mathematical development, helping parents understand more about how their children learn mathematically and socially, and increasing the likelihood that children will discuss mathematics with an adult who is significant in their lives. The first phase of this project develops, pilot tests, and evaluates a Homeside Math resource book for each grade level, K-2, with activities teachers can send home to foster positive interaction about mathematics between parents and their children. These activities are related to exemplary school curricula, particularly those developed with NSF support. The next phase develops a limited number of additional activities to add to the Homeside Math collection to be published as Community Math. Community Math is a resource book for youth workers with activities that foster mathematical discussions between children ages 5-8 and a significant adult and can be used in a variety of community organization settings and sent home for family use. Workshops are developed for parents, teachers, and youth workers to strengthen their knowledge of child-centered instructional strategies, meaningful activities, and how children develop mathematically and socially. And facilitator workshops are developed for parents, teachers, and youth workers to enable them to lead workshops for parents.
The Louisville Science Center and the National Center for Family Literacy will engage in a year's planning to introduce the Parent- Child Interaction Project to teams of educators in six target cities. The goal is to explore the feasibility of a future national implementation of the model. The Parent-Child Interaction Project aims to empower underserved parents to become their child's most important teacher and provide these parents and their children the opportunity to gain science, mathematics, and technology education together. The participants are the parents and pre-school children enrolled in family literacy programs. During the Project, parents and children will make at least four trips to the participating science-technology center and evaluate their trips during follow-up class sessions. The joint efforts of the family literacy programs and science- technology centers can achieve the following goals: * Improve the involvement of low-income and low-literacy parents in the education of their children, specifically in the areas of science, mathematics and technology. * Increase the awareness of local science and technology centers as available community resources, particularly for underserved audiences. * Use science center visits and related projects to extend NCFL classroom learning for adult education students, their children and their teachers.
The Wildlife Conservation Society is developing and implementing a five-year science program for 420 parents and 210 teachers of children in grades K-8. Linked directly with school curricula and the new National Science Education Standards, the program will bridge the gap between parents and schools, and position the Zoo as a partner and intermediary to help parents and teachers improve the quality and quantity of science education. The program consists of four interrelated components: 1) A series of workshops that will prepare the 420 parents and 210 teachers to work in teams for better and more widely available science education; 2) A series of education projects that will enable workshop participants to teach thousands of other parents and educators about the importance of science literacy, the need for active parental engagement in children's education, and the crucial role that informal science institutions play in augmenting formal science instruction; 3) A series of four Science Advocacy Fairs at the Zoo that are expected to raise the visitor's consciousness on a large scale about the above issues; and 4) A symposium for educators from schools and informal science centers in the region to disseminate successful methods for involving parents in science education.