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

进入工程学的一条众所周知的途径是通过持续的具体化游戏来建造玩具，这些玩具在历史上一直与童年联系在一起。虽然之前的许多文献已经将玩积木玩具与空间认知联系起来，但在游戏环境中经历的其他影响早期工程身份形成和自我概念的社会情绪线索在很大程度上仍未被探索。开发这一职业研究项目是为了探索最近快速发展的为女孩设计的玩具，这些玩具依赖于这样一个前提，即女孩会对玩这些玩具更感兴趣，而且它们在认知和精神运动发展方面也会带来类似的好处。通过从现象学的视角来研究具体化的游戏，以了解儿童如何体验建造玩具的游戏的变化，以及从民族志的视角来识别可以被分类和计数的可辨别的游戏互动，本项目的定位是在叙事背景、兴趣和获得的因素以及不同身份和群体之间不同的期望发展结果之间建立经验联系。该项目将通过与注重非正式学习环境的当地组织的社区伙伴关系来整合研究和教育成果，在非正式学习环境中，通过游戏进行学习是最可行和最容易获得的。具体成果将包括为教育工作者、学校管理人员和项目主管提供职业发展机会，以帮助促进支持所有学生都能获得的空间认知发展和早期工程身份形成的项目。研究小组将利用多阶段混合方法研究设计来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。我们将向学术社区以及家长、从业者和玩具公司广泛传播研究结果和资源。这个职业项目将利用两个阶段的混合方法研究设计，以研究具体化的游戏互动和游戏体验，以及建造3-5年级学生(女孩和男孩)的玩具。研究方法将在第一阶段使用同步设计和现象学内容分析，以了解参与者如何体验不同的游戏，并使用人种学视频分析来识别和分类可识别的言语(间接)和非言语(直接)体现的与建筑玩具的游戏互动。在第二阶段，将使用顺序设计来量化编码数据，并执行统计相关性和比较测试，以定义与空间能力、工程特性和人口统计因素的关系。研究活动将被组织和执行，以询问三个核心假设：i)当有吸引她们的内嵌叙事语境时，女孩会对玩建筑玩具表现出更高的兴趣，ii)对建造玩具表示兴趣的女孩也经常可以接触到它们，以及iii)对建造玩具有相似兴趣和接触的女孩和男孩将通过他们的游戏经历和与它们的互动获得类似的好处。相关的教育活动将包括与我们的社区伙伴一起引入一项以空间技能发展为目标的课后计划，该计划也将作为第二阶段大型小组非正式学习观察的研究背景。将为职前和在职教师举办讲习班，介绍这项研究的结果，为积极支持小学生空间技能发展的课堂实践提供信息，包括至少为非正式学习空间主任举办一次培训者培训讲习班。这项研究将通过以下方式为扩大女孩对工程的参与提供信息：(1)确定具体化游戏与建筑玩具的互动与空间技能发展之间的经验关系，这是许多工程学学科的基础；(2)描述具体化的游戏体验如何塑造建筑玩具的形状，并由早期工程认同形成；以及(3)界定对建造玩具的兴趣和获得与玩具叙事、家庭环境和人口统计因素(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团队的支持，该团队有两个知名的社区合作伙伴，他们是国家组织的代表，他们可以通过社区组织和非政府组织的巨大符号网络帮助促进这项工作的谨慎和战略传播。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并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，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.