Playful Learning Landscapes: Promoting Informal STEM Learning in Public Spaces

长期以来的研究表明，早期的非正式STEM学习经历，如积木游戏、拼图、参观动物园和科学博物馆，可以为STEM学习奠定坚实的基础，并为以后的STEM成功奠定基础。然而，由于资源稀缺以及交通和成本等障碍，低收入和历史上服务不足社区的儿童获得这些机会的机会较少。为了应对这些挑战，本项目将努力为低收入拉丁裔社区的公共城市空间（如当地公园、公交车站和杂货店）注入有趣和吸引人的非正式STEM学习机会，以此作为一种策略，了解公共空间（与社区合作伙伴共同设计并了解学习科学）如何为家庭自然消磨时间的社区场所的幼儿提供丰富的非正式STEM学习体验。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学习的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，扩大STEM学习经验的获取和参与，推进非正式环境中STEM学习的创新研究和评估，以及发展参与者对深度学习的理解。利用基于社区的参与式设计研究技术，研究人员将与加利福尼亚州圣安娜的社区家庭和合作伙伴密切合作，以实现三个目标：1)与社区合作伙伴共同设计一系列户外玩乐学习景观（PLL）展览装置，反映拉丁裔社区的目标、价值观和文化资本。2)探索照顾者和他们的孩子如何体验PLL展览装置，并检查以下方面的发展和变化：a)照顾者与孩子之间的STEM对话和互动，b)照顾者对非正式STEM学习重要性的态度，以及他们对自己在促进STEM学习中的作用的信念。3)利用来自县合作伙伴的现有数据，检查在特定社区内安装多个PLL对促进儿童早期一系列认知和社会情感结果的STEM学习和发展的潜在影响。该项目将通过展示理解拉丁裔家庭为学习环境带来的文化资产的新方法，展示如何将当地社区的独特资产和需求纳入公共基础设施，并记录在这些环境中发生的与STEM相关的学习经验和互动，来推进目前关于非正式STEM学习的知识。由于与奥兰治县儿童和家庭委员会的合作，该委员会收集了该县每个孩子的儿童学习和发展数据，研究人员将研究单个社区中一系列有趣的stem学习展览装置对儿童发展结果的纵向影响，并将其与没有这些装置的匹配社区进行比较。通过利用日常生活促进有趣的STEM学习和照顾者与儿童的STEM相关互动，该项目将：1)使照顾者能够在幼儿时期为儿童建立STEM学习基础；2)以当地家庭和儿童的文化资本为城市设计和振兴的中心，作为城市如何重新设计的典范，以加强公共空间中无处不在的STEM学习。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 long history of research suggests that early informal STEM learning experiences such as block play, puzzles, visiting zoos and science museums can build a strong foundation for STEM learning and which leads to later STEM success. Yet, children from low-income and historically underserved communities have less access to these opportunities due to scarce resources and barriers to access such as transportation and cost. To address these challenges, this project will endeavor to infuse public urban spaces such as local parks, bus-stops, and grocery stores with playful and engaging informal STEM learning opportunities in low-income Latinx neighborhoods as a strategy for understanding how public spaces—when co-designed with community partners and informed by the science of learning—can foster rich, informal STEM learning experiences for young children in neighborhood places where families naturally spend time. 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. Using techniques of Community-Based, Participatory Design Research, researchers will collaborate closely with community families and partners in Santa Ana, California to achieve three aims: 1) Co-design a series of outdoor Playful Learning Landscape (PLL) exhibit installations with community partners that reflect the goals, values, and cultural capital of the Latino community. 2) Explore how caregivers and their children experience PLL exhibit installations and examine the development and changes in: a) caregiver-child STEM conversation and interactions, and b) caregiver attitudes about the importance of informal STEM learning and their beliefs about their role in facilitating STEM learning. 3) Leverage existing data from county partners to examine the potential effects of having multiple PLL installations within a specific neighborhood on promoting STEM learning and development across an array of cognitive and socio-emotional outcomes in early-childhood. This project will advance current knowledge on informal STEM learning by demonstrating new ways to understand the cultural assets that Latinx families bring to learning contexts, showing how the unique assets and needs of a local community can be incorporated into public infrastructure, and documenting the STEM-related learning experiences and interactions that occur in these settings. Due to a partnership with the Orange County Children and Families Commission, which collects data on child learning and development on every child in the county, researchers will examine the longitudinal impacts of a cluster of playful STEM-learning exhibit installations in a single neighborhood on children’s developmental outcomes compared to matched neighborhoods without access to these installations. By leveraging everyday routines to promote playful STEM learning and caregiver-child STEM-related interactions, this project will: 1) empower caregivers to build a STEM learning foundation for children during early childhood; and 2) serve as a model for how cities can be re-designed to enhance ubiquitous STEM learning across public spaces, with the cultural capital of local families and children at the center of urban design and revitalization.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.