Leveraging the Power of Reflection and Visual Representation in Middle-Schoolers' Learning During and After an Informal Science Experience

该项目解决了非正式科学教育中一个长期存在的问题：如何增加从实地考察等短期经验中学习相应的科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）的可能性。尽管非正式的学习经历可以极大地促进对科学的兴趣和知识，但教育工作者和研究人员都有一个共同的担忧，即学生可能难以回忆和使用这些经历中强调的科学信息和实践，尽管这样做会进一步促进他们的科学学习。尽管如此，科学学习很少是“一次性交易”。儿童在不同的环境和活动中积累科学知识。因此，重要的是，非正式的科学学习机构必须确定有效的实践，以支持从展览经验中巩固学习和记忆，从而培养跨环境（例如从非正式的科学学习机构到教室和家庭）的可移植、可用的知识。为此，这个“服务于实践的研究”项目旨在利用视觉表征（如图形、图纸、图表、地图等）的力量和潜力，在科学学习经历期间和之后加强学习并鼓励有效的反思。该项目承诺为9,000多名来自缅因州农村和日益多样化的五年级和六年级学生增加学习，他们每年参加LabVenture，在缅因州湾研究所进行2.5小时的缅因州湾生态系统探索。该研究将提供新的、可操作的非正式科学学习实践，促进参与视觉表征和反思，以及可被非正式科学机构广泛应用的科学理解。该项目由推进非正式STEM学习（AISL）和发现研究PreK-12 （DRK-12）项目资助。它支持AISL项目的目标，即推进非正式环境中STEM学习的设计和开发的新方法和基于证据的理解。它支持DRK-12项目的目标，即加强pre -12学生和教师对STEM的学习和教学。该项目基于这样一种理念，即包括绘图在内的视觉表现既可以加强科学学习，又可以鼓励对科学研究的反思，从而支持将这种学习扩展到单一的非正式科学经验之外。该项目使用基于设计的研究来解决以下研究问题：(1)非正式科学学习经验中的反思是否促进了学生对科学信息和实践的记忆和后续使用，这些信息和实践是经验的一部分？(2)解释和构建视觉表征，如图画，是否能提高学生对信息的理解和记忆？如果能，如何提高，何时提高？(3)将视觉表现与叙事反思相结合，是否有利于学生在非正式学习经历中，以及后来在教室和家中的科学学习和科学实践？这些问题将与从业人员（非正式教育工作者和课堂教师）以及研究生和本科生研究人员组成的多元化团队合作进行。在LabVenture体验期间，将观察大约600个学生群体（大约3000名学生），并进一步收集这些学生在学校和家中的部分数据。该项目将提供实地测试的资源和视频演示，以经验为基础的实践，促进与视觉表现和反思的参与，以及可以在学生的学习生态系统中传播的科学理解。为了支持更广泛的参与，本科生/研究生研究人员将获得广泛的理解和经验，将研究与实践联系起来，并向学术和非学术受众传播科学。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 project addresses a longstanding problem in informal science education: how to increase the likelihood of consequential science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) learning from short duration experiences such as field trips. Although informal learning experiences can greatly contribute to interest in and knowledge of science, there is a shared concern among educators and researchers that students may have difficulty recalling and using scientific information and practices emphasized during these experiences, even though doing so would further their science learning. Nonetheless, science learning is rarely, if ever, a "one-shot deal." Children acquire knowledge about science cumulatively across different contexts and activities. Therefore, it is important that informal science learning institutions identify effective practices that support the consolidation of learning and memory from exhibit experiences to foster portable, usable knowledge across contexts, such as from informal science learning institutions, to classrooms, and homes. To this end, this Research in Service to Practice project seeks to harness the power and potential of visual representations (e.g., graphs, drawings, charts, maps, etc.) for enhancing learning and encouraging effective reflection during and after science learning experiences. The project promises to increase learning for the 9,000+ 5th and 6th grade students from across the rurality and growing diversity of the state of Maine who annually participate in LabVenture, a 2.5-hour exploration of the Gulf of Maine ecosystem at Gulf of Maine Research Institute. The research will provide new and actionable informal science learning practices that promote engagement with visual representations and reflection, and science understandings that can be applied broadly by informal science institutions. This project is funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) and the Discovery Research PreK-12 (DRK-12) programs. It supports the AISL program goals to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments. It supports the DRK-12 program goal of enhancing the learning and teaching of STEM by preK-12 students and teachers.The project is grounded in the idea that visual representations, including drawings, can both enhance science learning and encourage reflection on doing science that can support extension of that learning beyond a singular informal science experience. The project uses design-based research to address the following research questions: (1) Does reflection during an informal science learning experience promote students’ retention and subsequent use of science information and practices that are part of the experience? (2) Does interpreting and constructing visual representations, such as drawings, improve students’ understanding and retention of information, and if so, how and when? and (3) Does combining visual representations and narrative reflections confer benefits on students’ science learning and engagement in science practices both during the informal learning experience, and later in their classrooms and at home? These questions will be pursued in collaboration with practitioners (both informal educators and classroom teachers) and a diverse team of graduate and undergraduate student researchers. Approximately 600 student groups (roughly 3000 individual students) will be observed during the LabVenture experience, with further data collection involving a portion of these students at school and at home. The project will yield resources and video demonstrations of field-tested, empirically based practices that promote engagement with visual representations and reflection, and science understandings that can travel within students' learning ecosystem. In support of broadening participation, the undergraduate/graduate student researchers will gain wide understanding and experience connecting research to practice and communicating science to academic and nonacademic audiences.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.