RAPID: Addressing Families’ Covid-19 Information and Education Needs Through Podcast Media

本RAPID是为回应NSF Dear Colleague关于COVID-19大流行病的信函而提交的。该奖项是由AISL计划在学习研究部，使用冠状病毒援助，救济和经济安全（关怀）法案的资金。该奖项的目的是促进对儿童科学播客如何为家庭提供信息的理解，以帮助缓解儿童在流行病期间的焦虑和恐惧。该项目的假设是，通过听大脑！通过与冠状病毒相关的事件，儿童将增加他们对与大流行病相关的科学概念的理解。随着他们获得这种理解，预计他们对大流行病的总体恐惧和焦虑将减少，他们将感到有能力提出与大流行病有关的问题，并将与家人进行更多基于科学的对话。 该项目将开发三个Brains On！播客节目特别关注5至12岁儿童及其家庭的COVID-19大流行。研究问题包括：1.如何以及在多大程度上做大脑！的新冠病毒为基础的插曲，帮助儿童和他们的家人了解和谈论科学相关的流行病的话题？这些事件引发了什么样的对话？2.孩子们在听完《头脑风暴》后会有什么样的问题呢？冠状病毒事件，以及他们提出问题的原因是什么？这些问题能告诉我们什么关于倾听对孩子科学参与和学习的影响？3.父母需要哪些资源来回答孩子的问题，帮助他们了解与大流行相关的科学话题？该项目是明尼苏达州公共广播电台媒体制作人和明尼苏达州科学博物馆研究人员之间的合作。 开动脑筋！已经有大量的听众，每年有700万次下载，每月有20多万独立听众，这些新的剧集可能会进一步增加。 研究结果将迅速传播给广泛的受众，他们可以立即应用研究结果为家庭创建媒体和其他与冠状病毒相关的教育资源。 PI之前的NSF资助项目发现，以前的Brains On！具有一系列STEM内容的播客增加了儿童提出的科学问题的数量和复杂性，并导致与家庭成员进行基于科学的对话。该项目将研究与COVID-19这一单一主题相关的影响。 三个在线调查的大脑！听众（有5 - 12岁儿童的家庭）将进行。项目一开始就将进行的第一次调查将侧重于父母，反映在流行病的这一阶段需要哪些信息。在新的COVID-19播客节目发布后，将立即进行另外两次听众调查。这些调查将提出针对具体内容的问题，以了解该集如何向儿童及其家人传达信息，内容引发了哪些对话，以及家庭需要哪些额外信息。在进行这三项调查之前，将对10个家庭进行基于视频的有声思维访谈，测试和修改调查问题。剧集、社交媒体、网站和时事通讯。每项调查的样本数目约为1，000个（以95%置信区间及±3%抽样误差为基础）。 分析将包括描述性统计和开放式调查问题的专题编码。 当样本足够大时，将通过人口统计变量（例如种族/民族，家庭收入，家庭中的最高教育水平，家庭中有STEM职业的成年人，孩子的性别，地理位置）来查看响应的差异。研究人员和Brains On！工作人员将共同努力，确定如何将研究结果应用于后续冠状病毒相关事件的发展，并与伊势领域分享，以进一步支持家庭的教育和信息需求。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This RAPID was submitted in response to the NSF Dear Colleague letter related to the COVID-19 pandemic. This award is made by the AISL program in the Division of Research on Learning, using funds from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. The goal of this award is to advance understanding of how children’s science podcasts can provide families with information to help ease children’s anxiety and fears during a pandemic. The project’s hypothesis is that through listening to Brains On! coronavirus-related episodes, children will increase their understanding of science concepts related to the pandemic. As they gain this understanding, it is predicted that their overall fear and anxiety about the pandemic will diminish, they will feel empowered to ask pandemic-related questions and will engage in more science- based conversations with their family members. The project will develop three Brains On! podcast episodes focused specifically on the COVID-19 pandemic for kids aged 5 to 12 and their families. The research questions include:1. How and to what extent do Brains On!’s coronavirus-based episodes help children and their families understand and talk about science-related pandemic topics? What kind of conversations are sparked by these episodes?2. What kinds of questions do children have after listening to the Brains On! coronavirus episodes and what are the reasons for their questions? What can the questions tell us about the impact of listening on kids' science engagement and learning?3. What resources do parents need to answer children’s questions and help them understand science topics related to the pandemic?This project is a collaboration between a media producer, Minnesota Public Radio and researchers at The Science Museum of Minnesota. Brains On! already has a large listening audience, with 7 million downloads a year, and more than 200,000 unique listeners a month and these new episodes are likely to increase listenership further. The research findings will be quickly disseminated to a wide range of audiences that can immediately apply the findings to create media and other coronavirus-related educational resources for families. The PI's prior NSF funded projects have found that previous Brains On! podcasts with a range of STEM content increase the number and sophistication of the science questions children ask and lead to science-based conversations with family members. This project will study the impacts in relation to a singular topic, COVID-19. Three online surveys of Brains On! listeners (families with children ages 5 - 12 years old) will be conducted. The first survey to be conducted as soon as the project begins will focus on parents reflecting on what information is needed at that stage of the pandemic. Two additional listener surveys will occur immediately after new COVID-19 podcast episodes are released. These surveys will ask content-specific questions to understand how well the episode conveys that information to children and their families, what conversations were sparked from the content, and what additional information needs families have. Prior to administering each of the three surveys, video-based think-aloud interviews with 10 families will test and revise survey questions.Survey participants will be recruited using language in Brains On! episodes, social media, website, and newsletters. A sample size of around 1,000 for each of the surveys is planned (based on a 95% confidence interval and ±3% sampling error). Analyses will include descriptive statistics and thematic coding of open-ended survey questions. Subgroup samples, when large enough will look at differences in responses by demographic variables (e.g. race/ethnicity, household income, highest level of education in the household, an adult in the household with a STEM career, gender of child, geographic location). The researchers and Brains On! staff will work together to identify how the findings can be applied to the development of subsequent coronavirus-related episodes and shared with the ISE field to further support families’ education and information needs.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.