Investigating the Impact of Head Start Family Interactions on Childrens STEM Process Skills during Family Events at Two Science Centers

在两个科学中心的家庭活动中调查启蒙家庭互动对儿童 STEM 过程技能的影响

• 批准号: 2005594
• 负责人: Michelle Kortenaar
• 金额: $ 29.73万
• 依托单位: Sciencenter
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-09-15 至 2024-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2005594&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Investigating; Impact; Head; Start; Family

Parents and adult caregivers play a significant role in young children’s understanding of—and participation in—science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Research suggests that early engagement with STEM can have a profound impact on children’s use of STEM process skills such as exploration, observation, and problem-solving, as well as future academic success. An immediate yet ongoing challenge facing informal STEM learning providers is to understand how limited resources can be used to support effective STEM learning opportunities and experiences for all children and families. Through a collaboration between researchers, Head Start, two science centers (one rural, one urban), and educators, this project aims to foster STEM access and engagement with specific attention to young children and their caregivers. This 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.This Pilot and Feasibility study will apply an experimental, mixed-methods design to examine parent/caregiver and child (ages 4-5) interactions before, during, and after informal STEM experiences to identify which factors influence children's transfer of learning STEM process skills across multiple informal contexts. Research results will lay the foundation for a future longitudinal study. The project team will ask: (1) What types of parent/caregiver-child engagement at the science center are most predictive of children’s application of STEM process skills in subsequent problem-solving tasks and school readiness? (2) How do variations in parent/caregiver-child conversational strategies during the science center visit influence children’s memory and learning? and (3) How can informal educators best support Head Start family engagement and children’s emerging STEM knowledge? This study will collect data on 240, 4-5-year-old children, with their caregivers, in two different science centers that serve a largely rural and largely urban population. Data sources will include video/audio of caregiver-child interactions at the science centers and at home, as well as children’s recall, engagement with a problem-solving task, and school readiness scores. Coding and analysis of the tasks during and after the science center visit will detail mechanisms underlying children’s memory, learning, and application of STEM process skills that transfer to the problem-solving task. The project will be implemented by a research-practice partnership, leveraging the expertise of project partners and communities to ensure the use of culturally responsive research practices. This research has the potential to strategically impact how science centers and Head Start grantees work together on Family Engagement programming to achieve equitable STEM learning opportunities, broadening participation for low-income young children and their families.This 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.

父母和成年照顾者在幼儿理解和参与科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)方面发挥着重要作用。研究表明，早期接触STEM可以对儿童使用STEM过程技能(如探索、观察和解决问题)以及未来的学业成功产生深远影响。非正式的STEM学习提供者面临的一个直接但持续的挑战是了解如何利用有限的资源为所有儿童和家庭提供有效的STEM学习机会和经验。通过研究人员、Head Start、两个科学中心(一个农村、一个城市)和教育工作者之间的合作，该项目旨在促进STEM的机会和参与，并特别关注幼儿及其照顾者。该项目由推进非正式STEM学习计划(AISL)资助，该计划旨在促进对非正式环境中STEM学习的设计和开发的新方法和基于证据的理解。这项试点和可行性研究将采用实验性的混合方法设计，考察父母/照顾者和儿童(4-5岁)在非正式STEM经历之前、期间和之后的互动，以确定哪些因素影响儿童在多种非正式环境中学习STEM过程技能的迁移。研究成果将为今后的纵向研究奠定基础。项目团队将询问：(1)在科学中心，哪些类型的父母/照顾者-儿童参与最能预测儿童在随后的问题解决任务和学校准备中应用STEM过程技能的情况？(2)在访问科学中心期间，父母/照顾者-儿童对话策略的变化如何影响儿童的记忆和学习？以及(3)非正规教育者如何才能最好地支持家庭参与和儿童正在形成的STEM知识？这项研究将在两个不同的科学中心收集240名4-5岁儿童的数据，这些儿童和他们的照顾者在这两个不同的科学中心服务，主要服务于农村和城市人口。数据来源将包括科学中心和家里照顾者与儿童互动的视频/音频，以及儿童的回忆、参与解决问题的任务和上学准备分数。在科学中心参观期间和之后的任务编码和分析将详细说明儿童记忆、学习和STEM过程技能应用转移到问题解决任务的潜在机制。该项目将通过研究-实践伙伴关系实施，利用项目合作伙伴和社区的专门知识，确保使用响应文化的研究实践。这项研究有可能从战略上影响科学中心和Head Start受赠者如何在家庭参与规划方面合作，以实现公平的STEM学习机会，扩大低收入幼儿及其家庭的参与。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。