Science learning through embodied performances in elementary and middle school

有必要制定方法，使科学思想和实践更容易为学生所接受，特别是小学生和在STEM学科中代表性不足的人群。学习科学涉及科学知识和科学身份的构建，这两者都可以通过将科学实践与戏剧和扫盲实践相结合的科学教学来支持。该项目的方法使用两种类型的体现表演：体验表演，让学习者使用他们的身体来体验科学现象（例如，运动期间心率的增加），以及学习者表演科学思想的戏剧性表演（例如，空气污染的来源和影响）与手势，身体运动，舞蹈，角色扮演，或戏剧作品。身体运动，位置和行动沿着与语言和其他模式的代表性，作为重要的组成部分的意义制造，这为学习者提供了机会，了解科学的核心思想，交叉概念，并通过戏剧化他们和其他科学实践。这个项目增加了有限的科学教育文献的使用，价值和影响体现在科学课堂上的表现，并对辉煌，独创性和科学知识，所有的青年，特别是历史上边缘化的年轻人，本项目的研究重点是了解科学概念和过程的具体表现如何塑造课堂，科学学习，以及它们的影响在科学主题、小学和中学年级以及随着学年的进展如何相似和/或不同。它探讨了学生学习的科学思想的种类，他们从事的多模态读写实践，以及他们构建的科学身份。该研究关注所有年轻人的学习，特别关注STEM中历史上被边缘化群体的儿童。使用基于设计的研究，项目团队（学生和教师在芝加哥公立学校，教学艺术家和研究人员）设计体现的性能，实施，研究，并在整个项目的持续时间修改。10名教师参加专业发展学习相关的戏剧实践（包括适应，工作购物，以及个人间和个人内的体现做法），以加强他们的科学理解，并学习在他们的教学交织在一起的方式。随后，他们通过在课堂上实施各种活动得到教学艺术家的支持，最终在没有任何脚手架的情况下实施这些活动。数据来源包括课堂作业期间的实地考察与具体表现;书面材料，图像，声音文件，和其他数字制作创建，以提高，分享，扩大，和/或支持性能;正在进行的书面学生反思学习科学和具体表现的作用;在科学课程中发现定期评估;反思对话与学生团队对他们的具体表现;一对一的半结构化访谈，每个教室6个重点学生关于科学身份的发展，在一个学年两次;视频的课堂作业相关的体现性能;和视频的科学思想由学生执行学校和社区观众。分析包括定性数据的结构化和集中编码，多模态话语分析和内容分析。这项研究的结果提供了经验证据，证明将表演艺术实践融入科学教学和学习的价值和影响，以及这种方法将城市科学课堂转变为边缘化群体的年轻人获得科学的空间，从而创造性地深入参与科学的潜力。旨在通过研究和开发创新资源，模型和工具，显着提高学前班学生和教师的科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）的学习和教学。DRK-12项目中的项目建立在STEM教育的基础研究以及为拟议项目提供理论和经验依据的先前研究和开发工作的基础上。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。

There is a need to develop ways of making scientific ideas and practices more accessible to students, in particular students in elementary grades and from populations underrepresented in STEM disciplines. Learning science involves the construction of scientific knowledge and science identities, both of which can be supported by science instruction that integrates scientific practices with theater and literacy practices. This project's approach uses two types of embodied performances: experiential performances that engage learners in using their bodies to physically experience scientific phenomena (e.g., the increase of heart rate during exercise), and dramatic performances where learners act out science ideas (e.g., the sources and impact of air pollution) with gestures, body movement, dances, role-plays, or theater productions. Body movements, positions, and actions along with language and other modes of representation are employed as critical constituents of meaning making, which offer learners opportunities to understand science core ideas, crosscutting concepts, and scientific practices by dramatizing them for and with others. This project is adding to the limited science education literature on the use, value, and impact of embodied performances in science classrooms, and on the brilliance, ingenuity, and science knowledge that all youth, and particularly historically marginalized young people, have and can further develop in urban school classrooms.This project's research focuses on understanding how embodied performances of science concepts and processes can shape classroom science learning, and how their impact is similar and/or different across science topics, elementary and middle school grade levels, and as the school year progresses. It explores the kinds of science ideas students learn, the multimodal literacy practices in which they engage, and the science identities they construct. The research attends to learning for all young people with a specific focus on children from historically marginalized groups in STEM. Using design-based research, the project team (students and teachers in Chicago Public Schools, teaching artists, and researchers) designs embodied performances that are implemented, studied, and revised throughout the project's duration. Ten teachers participate in professional development to learn relevant theater practices (including adaptation, workshopping, and inter- and intra-personal embodiment practices), to strengthen their science understandings, and to learn ways of intertwining both in their teaching. They are subsequently supported by teaching artists through the implementation of various activities in their classrooms, eventually implementing them without any scaffolding. Data sources include fieldnotes during classwork related to embodied performances; written materials, images, sound files, and other digital productions created to enhance, share, expand, and/or support performances; ongoing written student reflections on learning science and the role of embodied performances; regular assessments found in the science curriculum; reflective conversations with student teams about their embodied performances; one-on-one semi-structured interviews with 6 focal students per classroom about science identity development twice in a school year; video of classwork related to embodied performances; and video of science ideas performed by students to school and community audiences. Analyses include structured and focused coding of qualitative data, multimodal discourse analysis, and content analysis. The findings of this research are providing empirical evidence of the value and impact of integrating performing-arts practices into science teaching and learning and the potential of this approach to transform urban science classrooms into spaces where young people from marginalized groups find access to science to engage with it creatively and deeply.The Discovery Research K-12 program (DRK-12) seeks to significantly enhance the learning and teaching of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by preK-12 students and teachers, through research and development of innovative resources, models and tools. Projects in the DRK-12 program build on fundamental research in STEM education and prior research and development efforts that provide theoretical and empirical justification for proposed projects.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.