Designing Innovative Guided Play Experiences to Empower Parents and Engage Preschool-Age Children in STEM Learning

父母对幼儿期基础科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）技能的发展有很大的影响。这种影响在很大程度上是通过有趣的亲子互动和对话发生的，这些互动和对话以有趣和有用的方式让孩子接触到数学和空间概念。例如，学龄前儿童的父母经常被鼓励使用拼图，棋盘游戏和建筑活动来培养孩子的空间思维和早期数学技能。然而，像这样的以掌握为导向的玩具通常会引发高度结构化的互动，父母会指导孩子遵循明确的一步一步的指示和游戏规则。虽然这种家长主导的游戏可以在STEM中建立内容知识，但它对鼓励支持STEM教育和成就的内在动机的发现，生成性协作和创造性解决问题的技能几乎没有帮助。这项服务于实践项目的研究旨在了解父母如何与学龄前儿童一起玩耍，以培养儿童的STEM技能，同时支持儿童的社交情感技能。因此，这项研究有可能促进知识的有效战略，丰富在资源不足和人口稀少的社区，儿童博物馆和其他非正式学习机构的访问是有限的非正式学习机会。在三年的时间里，来自阿巴拉契亚农村社区的大约135名儿童和父母预计将参加这项研究，该研究分为三个阶段。在第一阶段，以人为本的设计过程将用于开发和完善游戏指南和家长支架，以促进富有成效的假装游戏，其特点是快乐和创造性的问题解决和丰富的父母/儿童对话，包括数学和空间概念和推理。在第二阶段，将制定和验证措施，以实施和编码这种富有成效的亲子游戏，并将在当地儿童博物馆测试和完善游戏指南。在最后阶段，将进行一次正式的实地测试，调查一段时间内使用游戏指南的外联方案的可行性和可接受性。干预前、干预中和干预后的措施将评估项目对儿童STEM和社交情感技能获得的影响，相对于对照组。该项目的一个预期成果是以研究为基础的教育材料，这些材料以产生空间和数学思维以及父母/孩子对话的方式说明和支持假装游戏。这些材料将提供给家庭和非正式学习者。该项目由推进非正式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，以扩大获得和参与STEM学习经验，推进创新研究和评估的STEM学习在非正式环境中，并发展的理解，更深层次的学习参与者。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过评估使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响力审查标准的支持。

Parents exert a strong influence on the development of foundational science, technology, engineering, and mathematical (STEM) skills in early childhood. This influence occurs, in large part, through playful parent-child interactions and conversations that expose children to mathematical and spatial concepts in interesting and useful ways. For example, parents of preschool children are often encouraged to use puzzles, board games, and construction activities to foster children's spatial thinking and early math skills. However, mastery-oriented toys like these typically elicit highly structured interactions, with parents directing children to follow explicit step-by-step instructions and game rules. Although this kind of parent-directed play can build content knowledge in STEM, it does little to encourage the kind of intrinsically-motivated discovery, generative collaboration, and creative problem-solving skills that support STEM education and attainment. This research in service to practice project seeks to understand how parents can play with their preschool children in ways that build children's STEM skills while also supporting children's social-emotional skills. As such, this research has the potential for advancing knowledge on effective strategies for enriching informal learning opportunities in under-resourced and sparsely populated communities where access to children's museums and other informal learning institutions is limited. Over a period of three years, approximately 135 children and parents from a rural Appalachian community are expected to participate in this research, which is organized into three phases. During Phase 1, human-centered design processes will be used to develop and refine play guides and parent scaffolds that promote productive pretend play, which is characterized by joyful and creative problem-solving and rich parent/child conversations featuring mathematical and spatial concepts and reasoning. In Phase 2, measures will be developed and validated to operationalize and code this kind of productive parent-child play and play guides will be tested and refined in a local children's museum. In the final phase, a formal field test will investigate the feasibility and acceptability of outreach programming involving the use of play guides over time. Pre-, mid-, and post-intervention measures will estimate program impact on child STEM and social-emotional skill acquisition, relative to a comparison group. An expected outcome of the project will be research-based educational materials that illustrate and support pretend play in ways that generate spatial and mathematical thinking and parent/child conversations. These materials will will be made available to families and informal learning practitioners. This project 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, advancing innovative research on and assessment of STEM learning in informal environments, and developing understandings of deeper learning by participants.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.