Collaborative Research: Advancing Early STEM Learning Opportunities Through Tinkering and Reflection

在全国范围内，人们对加强科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)的参与有着极大的兴趣。提供丰富的从事科学和工程实践的机会，可能是培养更多对未来STEM教育和职业选择感兴趣和追求的年轻人干部的关键。让孩子们参与探索和嬉戏实验的一种特别有效的方式可能是通过学习体验，这些体验要求对真实的物体和工具进行修补，以制造和重新制造东西。修修补补是研究和教育实践的一个重要目标，至少有两个原因：(1)修修补补的经历通常是社会性的，涉及儿童与教育工作者和家庭成员的互动，他们可以以各种方式支持与STEM相关的修修补补；(2)修修补补比许多其他类型的构建经历(如拼图、制作飞机模型)更具开放性，因为指导活动的是参与者自己独特的问题和目标。因此，修修补补为来自不同背景、兴趣和专业水平的儿童和家庭提供了一个非常容易进入STEM早期学习的切入点。这项从服务中研究到实践的项目由推进非正式STEM学习(AISL)计划资助，该计划旨在促进对非正式环境中STEM学习的设计和发展的新方法和基于证据的理解。该项目将在芝加哥儿童博物馆的修补实验室展览中进行。这项研究将调查父母和孩子(6-8岁)在修补活动中的反思性互动最终如何影响孩子在STEM中的参与度。基于设计的研究(DBR)非常适合反复的、背景丰富的修补过程。使用DBR方法，研究人员和博物馆促进者将接受培训，促使家庭成员在不同的时间点改变简单的反思策略，以此来加强儿童对这些共同修修补补活动的参与和记忆。通过循序渐进的改进，每个测试周期都会产生新的假设，可以在接下来的一轮观察中进行测试。研究结构及其测量的可操作性将有机地来自家庭在修补实验室的活动，并将与咨询委员会成员协商制定。数据收集策略将包括观察和访谈；将使用一系列编码方案来理解数据。这项研究将在理论上和实践上理解如何通过修修补补来加强幼儿及其家庭的STEM参与和学习。一个由至少350名儿童及其家庭组成的多元化群体将参与其中。该项目将就如何促进STEM在非正式科学教育环境中的参与和学习提供亟需的经验成果。它将为非正式的科学学习从业者、家长和其他希望为儿童提供STEM学习机会的教育工作者提供有用的信息和资源。这项研究将由芝加哥洛约拉大学和西北大学的研究人员以及芝加哥儿童博物馆的博物馆工作人员和教育工作者合作进行。

Nationally, there is tremendous interest in enhancing participation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Providing rich opportunities for engagement in science and engineering practices may be key to developing a much larger cadre of young people who grow up interested in and pursue future STEM education and career options. One particularly powerful way to engage children in exploration and playful experimentation may be through learning experiences that call for tinkering with real objects and tools to make and remake things. Tinkering is an important target for research and educational practice for at least two reasons: (1) tinkering experiences are frequently social, involving children interacting with educators and family members who can support STEM-relevant tinkering in various ways and (2) tinkering is more open-ended than many other kinds of building experiences (e.g., puzzles, making a model airplane), because it is the participants' own unique questions and objectives that guide the activity. Thus, tinkering provides a highly accessible point of entry into early STEM learning for children and families from a variety of backgrounds, interests and levels of expertise. This Research-in-Service to Practice project is funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program which seeks to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments. The project will take place in the Tinkering Lab exhibit at Chicago Children's Museum. The research will investigate how reflective interactions between parents and children (ages 6-8) during tinkering activities ultimately impact child engagement in STEM. Design-based research (DBR) is well-suited to the iterative and contextually-rich process of tinkering. Using a DBR approach, researchers and museum facilitators will be trained to prompt variations of simple reflection strategies at different time points between family members as a way to strengthen children's engagement with, and memory of these shared tinkering events. Through progressive refinement, each cycle of testing will lead to new hypotheses that can be tested in the subsequent round of observations. The operationalization of study constructs and their measurement will come organically from families' activities in the Tinkering Lab and will be developed in consultation with members of the advisory board. Data collection strategies will include observation and interviews; a series of coding schemes will be used to make sense of the data. The research will result in theoretical and practical understanding of ways to enhance STEM engagement and learning by young children and their families through tinkering. A diverse group of at least 350 children and their families will be involved. The project will provide much needed empirical results on how to promote STEM engagement and learning in informal science education settings. It will yield useful information and resources for informal science learning practitioners, parents, and other educators who look to advance STEM learning opportunities for children. This research will be conducted through a partnership among researchers at Loyola University of Chicago and Northwestern University and museum staff and educators at the Chicago Children's Museum.