Investigating the Impact of Head Start Family Interactions on Childrens STEM Process Skills during Family Events at Two Science Centers

在两个科学中心的家庭活动中调查启蒙家庭互动对儿童 STEM 过程技能的影响

• 批准号: 2005594
• 负责人: Michelle Kortenaar
• 金额: $ 29.73万
• 依托单位: Sciencenter
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-09-15 至 2024-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2005594&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Investigating; Impact; Head; Start; Family

Parents and adult caregivers play a significant role in young children’s understanding of—and participation in—science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Research suggests that early engagement with STEM can have a profound impact on children’s use of STEM process skills such as exploration, observation, and problem-solving, as well as future academic success. An immediate yet ongoing challenge facing informal STEM learning providers is to understand how limited resources can be used to support effective STEM learning opportunities and experiences for all children and families. Through a collaboration between researchers, Head Start, two science centers (one rural, one urban), and educators, this project aims to foster STEM access and engagement with specific attention to young children and their caregivers. 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 Pilot and Feasibility study will apply an experimental, mixed-methods design to examine parent/caregiver and child (ages 4-5) interactions before, during, and after informal STEM experiences to identify which factors influence children's transfer of learning STEM process skills across multiple informal contexts. Research results will lay the foundation for a future longitudinal study. The project team will ask: (1) What types of parent/caregiver-child engagement at the science center are most predictive of children’s application of STEM process skills in subsequent problem-solving tasks and school readiness? (2) How do variations in parent/caregiver-child conversational strategies during the science center visit influence children’s memory and learning? and (3) How can informal educators best support Head Start family engagement and children’s emerging STEM knowledge? This study will collect data on 240, 4-5-year-old children, with their caregivers, in two different science centers that serve a largely rural and largely urban population. Data sources will include video/audio of caregiver-child interactions at the science centers and at home, as well as children’s recall, engagement with a problem-solving task, and school readiness scores. Coding and analysis of the tasks during and after the science center visit will detail mechanisms underlying children’s memory, learning, and application of STEM process skills that transfer to the problem-solving task. The project will be implemented by a research-practice partnership, leveraging the expertise of project partners and communities to ensure the use of culturally responsive research practices. This research has the potential to strategically impact how science centers and Head Start grantees work together on Family Engagement programming to achieve equitable STEM learning opportunities, broadening participation for low-income young children and their families.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.

父母和成人护理人员在幼儿对科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）的理解和参与中发挥了重要作用。研究表明，早期参与STEM可以对儿童使用STEM过程技能（例如探索，观察和解决问题以及未来的学术成功）产生深远的影响。非正式的STEM学习提供者面临的直接但持续的挑战是了解如何使用有限的资源来支持所有儿童和家庭的有效的STEM学习机会和经验。通过研究人员，头开始，两个科学中心（一个粗糙，一个城市）和教育工作者之间的合作，该项目旨在促进STEM访问和参与，并特别关注幼儿及其护理人员。该项目是由非正式的STEM学习（AISL）计划资助的，该计划试图推进对非正式环境中STEM学习的新方法和基于证据的理解。此试验和可行性研究将应用实验性的混合方法设计，以检查父母/护理人员和儿童（4-5）在跨性别型茎的过程中，并在此过程中识别茎的过程中的互动，以识别STEM的互动，以识别STEM的互动，以识别STEM的传播。研究结果将为未来的纵向研究奠定基础。项目团队将询问：（1）科学中心的哪种父母/照顾者 - 孩子参与最能预测儿童在随后的解决问题的任务和学校准备方面的STEM过程技能的应用？ （2）在科学中心访问期间，父母/照顾者 - 孩子对话策略的变化如何影响儿童的记忆和学习？ （3）非正式教育者如何最好地支持首席家庭参与和儿童新兴的STEM知识？这项研究将在两个不同的科学中心中收集有关240、4-5岁儿童及其护理人员的数据，这些科学中心在很大程度上是崎rough的城市人口。数据源将包括科学中心和家里的照顾者 - 孩子互动的视频/音频，以及儿童召回，参与解决问题的任务以及学校准备分数。对科学中心访问期间和之后的任务进行编码和分析将详细介绍儿童记忆，学习和应用STEM过程技能的机制，这些机制将转移到解决问题的任务中的STEM过程技能。该项目将由研究实践伙伴关系实施，利用项目合作伙伴和社区的专业知识来确保使用具有文化响应的研究实践。这项研究有可能从战略上影响科学中心和头启动格兰德斯如何共同努力在家庭参与计划上，以实现公平的STEM学习机会，扩大低收入幼儿及其家人的参与。这奖奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是通过使用基金会的知识分子和更广泛影响的评估审查审查标准来通过评估来通过评估来支持的。