Leveraging the Power of Reflection and Visual Representation in Middle-Schoolers' Learning During and After an Informal Science Experience

这个项目解决了非正规科学教育中长期存在的一个问题：如何增加科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)从短期经历(如实地考察)中学习的可能性。尽管非正式学习经历可以极大地促进对科学的兴趣和知识，但教育工作者和研究人员都担心，学生可能难以回忆和使用在这些经历中强调的科学信息和实践，尽管这样做会促进他们的科学学习。尽管如此，科学学习很少是“一次性交易”。孩子们通过不同的背景和活动积累获得关于科学的知识。因此，重要的是，非正式科学学习机构必须确定有效的做法，支持从展示经验中巩固学习和记忆，以培养可移植、可使用的知识，例如从非正式科学学习机构到教室和家庭。为此，这个服务于实践的研究项目试图利用视觉表现形式(例如，图形、绘图、图表、地图等)的力量和潜力。促进学习，鼓励在科学学习过程中和之后进行有效的反思。该项目承诺增加缅因州9000多名5年级和6年级学生的学习，他们每年都会参加缅因湾研究所的LabVenture，这是一项2.5小时的缅因湾生态系统探索活动。这项研究将提供新的和可操作的非正式科学学习做法，促进参与视觉表现和反思，以及可被非正式科学机构广泛应用的科学理解。该项目由推进非正式STEM学习(AISL)和发现研究PreK-12(DRK-12)计划资助。它支持AISL计划的目标，以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。它支持DRK-12项目的目标，即加强学前班学生和教师对STEM的学习和教学。该项目基于这样的想法，即包括绘画在内的视觉表现既可以增强科学学习，又可以鼓励对做科学的反思，从而支持这种学习超越单一的非正式科学体验。该项目使用基于设计的研究来解决以下研究问题：(1)在非正式的科学学习经历中进行反思是否促进了学生对作为经验一部分的科学信息和实践的保留和随后的使用？(2)解释和构建视觉表征，如图画，是否提高了学生对信息的理解和保持，如果是，是如何以及何时提高的？以及(3)将视觉表征和叙事反思结合在一起是否有利于学生在非正式学习期间以及后来在课堂和家里进行科学学习和参与科学实践？这些问题将与实践者(非正式教育工作者和课堂教师)以及研究生和本科生研究人员的不同团队合作解决。在LabVenture体验期间，将观察大约600个学生小组(大约3000名学生个人)，并进一步收集这些学生中的一部分在学校和家里的数据。该项目将提供经过实地测试的、基于经验的实践的资源和视频演示，这些实践促进参与视觉表现和反思，以及可以在学生的学习生态系统中传播的科学理解。为了支持更广泛的参与，本科生/研究生研究人员将获得广泛的理解和经验，将研究与实践联系起来，并向学术和非学术受众传播科学。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。

This project addresses a longstanding problem in informal science education: how to increase the likelihood of consequential science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) learning from short duration experiences such as field trips. Although informal learning experiences can greatly contribute to interest in and knowledge of science, there is a shared concern among educators and researchers that students may have difficulty recalling and using scientific information and practices emphasized during these experiences, even though doing so would further their science learning. Nonetheless, science learning is rarely, if ever, a "one-shot deal." Children acquire knowledge about science cumulatively across different contexts and activities. Therefore, it is important that informal science learning institutions identify effective practices that support the consolidation of learning and memory from exhibit experiences to foster portable, usable knowledge across contexts, such as from informal science learning institutions, to classrooms, and homes. To this end, this Research in Service to Practice project seeks to harness the power and potential of visual representations (e.g., graphs, drawings, charts, maps, etc.) for enhancing learning and encouraging effective reflection during and after science learning experiences. The project promises to increase learning for the 9,000+ 5th and 6th grade students from across the rurality and growing diversity of the state of Maine who annually participate in LabVenture, a 2.5-hour exploration of the Gulf of Maine ecosystem at Gulf of Maine Research Institute. The research will provide new and actionable informal science learning practices that promote engagement with visual representations and reflection, and science understandings that can be applied broadly by informal science institutions. This project is funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) and the Discovery Research PreK-12 (DRK-12) programs. It supports the AISL program goals to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments. It supports the DRK-12 program goal of enhancing the learning and teaching of STEM by preK-12 students and teachers.The project is grounded in the idea that visual representations, including drawings, can both enhance science learning and encourage reflection on doing science that can support extension of that learning beyond a singular informal science experience. The project uses design-based research to address the following research questions: (1) Does reflection during an informal science learning experience promote students’ retention and subsequent use of science information and practices that are part of the experience? (2) Does interpreting and constructing visual representations, such as drawings, improve students’ understanding and retention of information, and if so, how and when? and (3) Does combining visual representations and narrative reflections confer benefits on students’ science learning and engagement in science practices both during the informal learning experience, and later in their classrooms and at home? These questions will be pursued in collaboration with practitioners (both informal educators and classroom teachers) and a diverse team of graduate and undergraduate student researchers. Approximately 600 student groups (roughly 3000 individual students) will be observed during the LabVenture experience, with further data collection involving a portion of these students at school and at home. The project will yield resources and video demonstrations of field-tested, empirically based practices that promote engagement with visual representations and reflection, and science understandings that can travel within students' learning ecosystem. In support of broadening participation, the undergraduate/graduate student researchers will gain wide understanding and experience connecting research to practice and communicating science to academic and nonacademic audiences.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.