RAPID: Addressing Families’ Covid-19 Information and Education Needs Through Podcast Media

本RAPID是为回应NSF关于COVID-19大流行的致同事信而提交的。该奖项由学习研究部的AISL项目颁发，资金来自《冠状病毒援助、救济和经济安全（关怀）法案》。该奖项的目标是促进人们了解儿童科学播客如何为家庭提供信息，以帮助缓解儿童在大流行期间的焦虑和恐惧。该项目的假设是，通过收听Brains On！与冠状病毒相关的事件，孩子们将增加他们对与大流行相关的科学概念的理解。随着他们获得这种理解，预计他们对大流行的整体恐惧和焦虑将减少，他们将感到有能力提出与大流行有关的问题，并将与家人进行更多基于科学的对话。该项目将开发three Brains On！播客专门针对5至12岁儿童及其家庭的COVID-19大流行。研究问题包括：1。怎么做，到什么程度？以冠状病毒为基础的剧集有助于儿童及其家人理解和谈论与科学相关的大流行话题？这些情节引发了什么样的对话？孩子们在听了《脑筋急转》之后都有哪些问题呢？冠状病毒的发作，他们提出问题的原因是什么？这些问题能告诉我们什么关于倾听对儿童科学参与和学习的影响？家长需要哪些资源来回答孩子的问题，帮助他们理解与大流行相关的科学主题？这个项目是媒体制作人、明尼苏达公共广播电台和明尼苏达科学博物馆的研究人员之间的合作。大脑!已经有大量的听众，每年有700万次下载，每月有超过20万的独立听众，这些新剧集可能会进一步增加听众。研究结果将迅速传播给广泛的受众，他们可以立即将研究结果应用于为家庭创建媒体和其他与冠状病毒相关的教育资源。PI之前的NSF资助项目已经发现，之前的Brains On！包含一系列STEM内容的播客增加了孩子们提出的科学问题的数量和复杂性，并导致与家庭成员进行基于科学的对话。该项目将研究与COVID-19这一单一主题相关的影响。Brains On!的三个在线调查听众（有5 - 12岁儿童的家庭）将被引导。项目一开始就进行的第一次调查将侧重于家长思考在大流行的那个阶段需要什么信息。在新一期COVID-19播客发布后，将立即进行另外两项听众调查。这些调查将询问特定内容的问题，以了解剧集向儿童及其家庭传达信息的程度，内容引发了哪些对话，以及家庭需要获得哪些额外信息。在进行三项调查之前，将对10个家庭进行基于视频的有声思考访谈，以测试和修改调查问题。调查参与者将使用brain On！剧集、社交媒体、网站和时事通讯。每次调查的样本量约为1000人（基于95%的置信区间和±3%的抽样误差）。分析将包括描述性统计和开放式调查问题的专题编码。当亚组样本足够大时，将根据人口统计变量（例如种族/民族、家庭收入、家庭中最高教育水平、家庭中有一个从事STEM职业的成年人、孩子的性别、地理位置）来观察反应的差异。研究人员和Brains On！工作人员将共同努力，确定如何将这些发现应用于后续冠状病毒相关事件的发展，并与ISE领域共享，以进一步支持家庭的教育和信息需求。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。

This RAPID was submitted in response to the NSF Dear Colleague letter related to the COVID-19 pandemic. This award is made by the AISL program in the Division of Research on Learning, using funds from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. The goal of this award is to advance understanding of how children’s science podcasts can provide families with information to help ease children’s anxiety and fears during a pandemic. The project’s hypothesis is that through listening to Brains On! coronavirus-related episodes, children will increase their understanding of science concepts related to the pandemic. As they gain this understanding, it is predicted that their overall fear and anxiety about the pandemic will diminish, they will feel empowered to ask pandemic-related questions and will engage in more science- based conversations with their family members. The project will develop three Brains On! podcast episodes focused specifically on the COVID-19 pandemic for kids aged 5 to 12 and their families. The research questions include:1. How and to what extent do Brains On!’s coronavirus-based episodes help children and their families understand and talk about science-related pandemic topics? What kind of conversations are sparked by these episodes?2. What kinds of questions do children have after listening to the Brains On! coronavirus episodes and what are the reasons for their questions? What can the questions tell us about the impact of listening on kids' science engagement and learning?3. What resources do parents need to answer children’s questions and help them understand science topics related to the pandemic?This project is a collaboration between a media producer, Minnesota Public Radio and researchers at The Science Museum of Minnesota. Brains On! already has a large listening audience, with 7 million downloads a year, and more than 200,000 unique listeners a month and these new episodes are likely to increase listenership further. The research findings will be quickly disseminated to a wide range of audiences that can immediately apply the findings to create media and other coronavirus-related educational resources for families. The PI's prior NSF funded projects have found that previous Brains On! podcasts with a range of STEM content increase the number and sophistication of the science questions children ask and lead to science-based conversations with family members. This project will study the impacts in relation to a singular topic, COVID-19. Three online surveys of Brains On! listeners (families with children ages 5 - 12 years old) will be conducted. The first survey to be conducted as soon as the project begins will focus on parents reflecting on what information is needed at that stage of the pandemic. Two additional listener surveys will occur immediately after new COVID-19 podcast episodes are released. These surveys will ask content-specific questions to understand how well the episode conveys that information to children and their families, what conversations were sparked from the content, and what additional information needs families have. Prior to administering each of the three surveys, video-based think-aloud interviews with 10 families will test and revise survey questions.Survey participants will be recruited using language in Brains On! episodes, social media, website, and newsletters. A sample size of around 1,000 for each of the surveys is planned (based on a 95% confidence interval and ±3% sampling error). Analyses will include descriptive statistics and thematic coding of open-ended survey questions. Subgroup samples, when large enough will look at differences in responses by demographic variables (e.g. race/ethnicity, household income, highest level of education in the household, an adult in the household with a STEM career, gender of child, geographic location). The researchers and Brains On! staff will work together to identify how the findings can be applied to the development of subsequent coronavirus-related episodes and shared with the ISE field to further support families’ education and information needs.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.