CAREER: Bricks & Blox Building Academy: Developing Spatial Skills & Engineering Identity through Embodied Play

进入工程学的一个众所周知的途径是通过持续地玩建筑玩具，这在历史上与童年有关。虽然之前的许多文献已经将玩建筑玩具与空间认知联系起来，但在游戏环境中体验到的影响早期工程身份形成和自我概念的其他社会情感线索在很大程度上仍未被探索。这个CAREER研究项目的开发是为了探索最近快速增长的“为女孩”设计的建筑玩具，这些玩具的前提是女孩会对这些玩具更感兴趣，并且它们会在认知和精神运动发展方面带来类似的好处。通过从现象学的角度来研究具体的游戏，以了解儿童如何体验建筑玩具的变化，并从民族志的角度来识别可分类和计数的可识别的游戏互动，该项目定位于在叙事背景，兴趣和访问因素以及不同身份和群体的期望发展结果之间建立经验联系。该项目将通过社区与当地组织的合作，将研究和教育成果结合起来，重点关注非正式学习环境，在非正式学习环境中，通过游戏学习是最可行和最容易的。具体成果将包括教育工作者、学校管理人员和项目主管的专业发展机会，以帮助促进支持所有学生可访问的空间认知发展和早期工程身份形成的项目。研究小组将采用多阶段混合方法研究设计，以创建和评估基于经验的建议和为非正式学习空间设计的课程材料。我们将把研究结果和资源广泛地传播给学术界、家长、从业者和玩具公司。这个职业项目将采用两阶段混合方法研究设计，研究3 -5年级（女孩和男孩）的建筑玩具的具体游戏互动和游戏体验。研究方法将在第一阶段使用并行设计，包括现象内容分析，以了解参与者如何体验不同的游戏，以及人种学视频分析，以识别和分类可识别的语言（间接）和非语言（直接）体现的与建筑玩具的游戏互动。在阶段2中，顺序设计将用于量化编码数据，并执行统计相关性和比较测试，以定义与空间能力、工程特性和人口因素的关系。研究活动将被组织和执行，以询问三个中心假设：i)当有嵌入式叙事背景吸引女孩时，女孩会对玩建筑玩具表现出更高的兴趣；ii)表达对建筑玩具感兴趣的女孩也会经常接触到这些玩具；iii)对建筑玩具有相似兴趣和接触程度的女孩和男孩将通过他们的游戏体验和互动获得类似的好处。相关的教育活动包括与我们的社区合作伙伴一起引入一个以空间技能发展为目标的课后项目，这也将作为第二阶段大群体非正式学习观察的研究背景。将为提出本研究成果的职前和在职教师开发和促进讲习班，以便为课堂实践提供信息，积极支持小学生空间技能的发展，包括为非正式学习空间主任举办至少一个培训师讲习班。本研究将通过(1)定义与建筑玩具的具身游戏互动与空间技能发展之间的经验关系（这是许多工程学科的基础），为扩大女孩参与工程的努力提供信息；(2)描述了建筑玩具的具象化游戏体验的形成方式，以及早期工程身份形成的形成方式；(3)定义对建筑玩具的兴趣和获取与玩具叙述、家庭环境和人口因素（即年龄、性别、种族、社会经济地位、城市/农村）之间的关系。该项目得到了一个强大的研究小组的支持，其中有两个知名的社区合作伙伴，他们是国家组织的代表，可以帮助促进通过社区组织和非政府组织的庞大国家网络认真和战略性地传播这项工作。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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。

A well-known pathway into engineering is through sustained embodied play with building toys which have been historically associated with boyhood. While much previous literature has made associations between play with building toys and spatial cognition, other social-emotional cues experienced in the play environment that influence early engineering identity formation and self-concept have remained largely unexplored. This CAREER research project was developed to explore the recent and rapid growth of building toys designed “for girls” that have relied on the premise that girls would be more interested in playing with these toys, and that they would bring similar benefits in cognitive and psychomotor development. By examining embodied play from both a phenomenographic lens to understand the variations in how children experience play with building toys, and an ethnographic lens to identify discernible play interactions that can be cataloged and counted, this project is positioned to make empirical connections between narrative contexts, factors of interest and access, and desired developmental outcomes that vary across different identities and groups. This project will integrate research and educational outcomes through community partnerships with local organizations focused on informal learning environments, where learning through play is most feasible and accessible. Specific outcomes will include professional development opportunities for educators, school administrators, and program directors to help facilitate programs that support the development of spatial cognition and early engineering identity formation that is accessible to all students. The research team will utilize a multi-phased mixed-method research design to create and evaluate empirically-based recommendations and curricular materials designed for informal learning spaces. We will disseminate findings and resources broadly to scholarly communities, as well as to parents, practitioners, and toy companies. This CAREER project will utilize a two-phase mixed-method research design to study embodied play interactions and play experiences with building toys of 3rd-5th graders (girls and boys). The research methodology will use a concurrent design in Phase 1 with phenomenographic content analysis to understand how participants experience play differently and ethnographic video analysis to identify and catalog discernible verbal (indirect) and nonverbal (direct) embodied play interactions with building toys. In Phase 2, a sequential design will be used to quantify codified data and perform statistical correlations and comparison tests that define relationships to spatial ability, engineering identity, and demographic factors. The research activities will be organized and executed to interrogate three central hypotheses: i) girls will show higher levels of interest in playing with building toys when there are embedded narrative contexts that appeal to them, ii) girls who express interest in building toys also have regular access to them, and iii) girls and boys with similar levels of interest in and access to building toys will achieve similar benefits through their play experiences and interactions with them. Related educational activities will include the introduction of an afterschool program targeting spatial skill development with our Community Partners, which will also serve as the research context for large-group informal learning observations during Phase 2. Workshops will be developed and facilitated for pre-service and in-service teachers that present findings from this research to inform classroom practices that actively support the development of spatial skills for elementary school children, including at least one Train-the-Trainer workshop for directors of informal learning spaces. This study will inform efforts to broaden girls’ participation in engineering by (1) defining empirical relationships between embodied play interactions with building toys and the development of spatial skills, which are fundamental to many engineering disciplines; (2) describing the ways in which embodied play experiences with building toys shape, and are shaped by early engineering identity formation; and (3) defining how aspects of interest in and access to building toys are related to toy narrative, family environment, and demographic factors (i.e., age, sex, race, SES, urban/rural). The project is supported by a strong research team with two well-known community partners that are representatives of national organizations who can help facilitate the mindful and strategic dissemination of this work through vast notational networks of community organizations and NGOs.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.