Tinkering and Making Strategies to Engage Children and Families in Creating with Code

修补和制定策略，让儿童和家庭参与代码创作

• 批准号: 2005731
• 负责人: Mike Petrich
• 金额: $ 76.63万
• 依托单位: Exploratorium
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-09-01 至 2024-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2005731&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Tinkering; Making; Strategies; Engage; Children

There is a national need to expand opportunities to learn coding and computational thinking in informal science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. These skills are increasingly needed in STEM disciplines. As young people learn to code, they engage in computational thinking concepts and practices which are problem solving strategies that include repeated process (iterative) design skills. This project promotes innovation by designing and developing activities for tinkering spaces (a space filled with materials for hands-on exploration of STEM) combined with coding in informal learning organizations such as museums, and community centers. The project supports both tinkering and making as methods to meaningfully incorporate computational thinking in STEM learning experiences. The tinkering approach to learning is characterized by hands-on, trial and error engagement. Making is similar to tinkering with additional attention to learning with peer groups. The long-term goal of the project is to enable informal educators to engage in STEM programming with youth and families from underrepresented groups. The project brings together interdisciplinary teams from the Department of Information Science at the University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder), the Tinkering Studio at the Exploratorium, and the Lifelong Kindergarten research group at the Massachusetts Institution of Technology. In collaboration with local partner sites, the project team will design and disseminate a collection of six computational tinkering activity areas that engage learners in creative explorations using a combination of physical objects and computational code. The team will develop visual coding "microworlds" for each of the activity areas, specialized sets of coding blocks designed to provide scaffolding. Additionally, the project team will design and develop facilitation guides to document these activities and facilitation strategies, as well as workshops to better support facilitators in making and tinkering spaces. The project enhances knowledge building through investigations of what instructional supports informal educators need to develop effective facilitation practices that engage underrepresented youth and families in STEM computational learning experiences. Study participants will include informal educators in museum, library, and community-based settings with varying backgrounds and experiences facilitating computing activities. The project team will also engage youth and families from underrepresented groups through collaborative efforts with community-based partners. Research questions include: 1) What challenges and barriers do informal learning educator, face to engage their learners in design-based activities with computing? 2) What supports informal learning educators to take on key facilitation practices that support children and families in computational tinkering activities? 3) In jointly engaging in these computational tinkering activities, how do the activities and informal learning educators’ facilitation of these activities impact children’s and families’ development of computational tinkering and identities as creators and learners with computing? To answer these research questions the project will use qualitative ethnographic methods to study the developing interactions between learners and facilitators at three local sites. Comparative case studies of facilitators across the local partner sites will also be used to examine what supports facilitators to take on key facilitation practices. Data sources will include participant observation of facilitators and families, documentation in the form of photos, videos, and audio recordings, project artifacts, bi-monthly short surveys with reflective prompts, and interviews with facilitators and families. This award 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 includes providing multiple pathways for broadening access to and engagement in STEM learning experiences.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.

国家需要扩大在非正式科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）教育中学习编码和计算思维的机会。STEM学科越来越需要这些技能。当年轻人学习编码时，他们参与计算思维概念和实践，这些概念和实践是解决问题的策略，包括重复过程（迭代）设计技能。该项目通过设计和开发修补空间（充满动手探索STEM材料的空间）的活动，结合博物馆和社区中心等非正式学习组织的编码，促进创新。 该项目支持修补和制作作为有意义地将计算思维纳入STEM学习体验的方法。 修修补补的学习方法的特点是动手，尝试和错误的参与。制作类似于修修补补，需要额外注意与同龄人一起学习。该项目的长期目标是使非正规教育工作者能够与来自代表性不足群体的青年和家庭一起参与STEM方案编制。该项目汇集了来自科罗拉多大学博尔德分校（CU博尔德）信息科学系、探索馆修补工作室和马萨诸塞州理工学院终身幼儿园研究小组的跨学科团队。项目团队将与当地合作伙伴网站合作，设计和传播一系列六个计算修补活动领域，让学习者结合使用实物和计算代码进行创造性探索。该团队将为每个活动区域开发视觉编码“微世界”，专门设计用于提供脚手架的编码块集。此外，项目小组将设计和制定便利化指南，以记录这些活动和便利化战略，并设计和制定讲习班，以更好地支持促进者创造和修补空间。该项目通过调查非正规教育工作者需要哪些教学支持来开发有效的促进做法，使代表性不足的青年和家庭参与STEM计算学习体验，从而加强知识建设。研究参与者将包括博物馆，图书馆和社区环境中的非正式教育工作者，他们具有不同的背景和经验，有助于促进计算活动。项目小组还将通过与社区伙伴的协作努力，让代表性不足群体的青年和家庭参与进来。研究问题包括：1）非正式学习教育工作者在让学习者参与基于设计的计算活动时面临哪些挑战和障碍？2)是什么支持非正式学习的教育工作者采取关键的促进做法，支持儿童和家庭的计算修补活动？3)在共同参与这些计算修补活动时，这些活动和非正式学习教育工作者对这些活动的促进如何影响儿童和家庭对计算修补的发展以及作为计算创造者和学习者的身份？为了回答这些研究问题，该项目将使用定性民族志的方法来研究在三个地方的学习者和促进者之间的发展互动。还将使用当地合作伙伴地点的促进者的比较案例研究来检查是什么支持促进者采取关键的促进实践。数据来源将包括参与者对辅导员和家庭的观察，以照片、视频和录音形式记录的文件，项目工件，带有反思提示的双月简短调查，以及对辅导员和家庭的采访。 该奖项由推进非正式STEM学习（AISL）计划资助，该计划旨在推进非正式环境中STEM学习的设计和开发的新方法和基于证据的理解。这包括提供多种途径，以扩大获取和参与STEM学习经验。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。