Lynn S. Liben - US grants

The applied research project builds on the IMD funded "Where are We?" and poses the following research questions:

Do students perform significantly better on real-world map tasks after using WAW?
What specific misconceptions and weaknesses remain widespread among students after using the materials?
How much improvement in student performance on map skills tasks would be expected after using the curriculum?
How can teachers tell whether student learning has occurred?
What is the relationship between teachers' spatial abilities and the likelihood they would use the materials?

The project will develop quantitative, reliable field-based assessments of map skills and use them, along with other instruments, with three populations: elementary students using the materials; children over the 7-15 age range who do not use the materials; and preservice elementary teachers. Results from these assessments will be used in a redesign of the materials.

Maps are powerful tools used to record and to systematize data, to generate and test hypotheses about phenomena and processes. Maps are central to a wide range of sciences, including-among many others-geography, geology, epidemiology, public health, anthropology, ecology, and regional planning. They are used to support exploration both on and beyond Earth; they are used in classrooms and in daily life. But both anecdotes ("I can't read a map!") and scientific research (e.g., see 2006 National Academy of Sciences report, Thinking Spatially) shows that not all people succeed in understanding and using maps. Work in developmental psychology has shown that many children and adults have very restricted views of maps and map functions (e.g., thinking that they are used exclusively for wayfinding), have difficulty understanding how spatial information contained in maps is linked to the real world (e.g., misunderstanding scale), and may have difficulty in interpreting the symbolic meaning of maps (e.g., mistakenly assuming that a red line stands for a red road). One potentially important path by which children may develop their map understanding is through parental guidance in informal learning environments. This research project examines the processes by which children are encouraged to develop map-related skills in informal learning settings. Specifically, the research will take place at The Children's Museum of Indianapolis. The Children's Musuem has developed a new exhibition, MAPS: Tools for Adventure. The exhibition is designed to introduce visitors to varied map types, map skills, map uses, and map-related exploration. For this research, families (N=80) with children between ages of 6 to 12 years will be invited to be "Exhibition Explorers." After demographic information has been collected from families, family members will complete entry assessments that measure spatial skills, map experience, and map concepts. As participants exit, they will complete a map location task and repeat the map concept task. While in the exhibition itself, families will be videotaped at five specific exhibits which cover a variety of substantive topics. Data will allow qualitative descriptions of teaching and engagement strategies and quantitative analyses of children's responses to the map tasks in relation to parent strategies, gender, age, and spatial skills.

This research will contribute to basic knowledge in cognitive-development, family interaction, and the interplay among child, parent, and contextual variables. In addition, the project will identify a range of teaching strategies that may later be adapted for programs in both parent education and formal classroom instruction. Such work is important for teaching geography and likely implications for teaching scientific concepts in other disciplines that rely on representations of spatially distributed data (e.g., public health, ecology). Finally, this work will contribute to the field of visitor studies by providing a new model for museum research in which data are collected and coordinated within single family units and will assist musuem directors interested in establishing new family-oriented, use-friendly exhibitions.

Parents exert a strong influence on the development of foundational science, technology, engineering, and mathematical (STEM) skills in early childhood. This influence occurs, in large part, through playful parent-child interactions and conversations that expose children to mathematical and spatial concepts in interesting and useful ways. For example, parents of preschool children are often encouraged to use puzzles, board games, and construction activities to foster children's spatial thinking and early math skills. However, mastery-oriented toys like these typically elicit highly structured interactions, with parents directing children to follow explicit step-by-step instructions and game rules. Although this kind of parent-directed play can build content knowledge in STEM, it does little to encourage the kind of intrinsically-motivated discovery, generative collaboration, and creative problem-solving skills that support STEM education and attainment. This research in service to practice project seeks to understand how parents can play with their preschool children in ways that build children's STEM skills while also supporting children's social-emotional skills. As such, this research has the potential for advancing knowledge on effective strategies for enriching informal learning opportunities in under-resourced and sparsely populated communities where access to children's museums and other informal learning institutions is limited.

Over a period of three years, approximately 135 children and parents from a rural Appalachian community are expected to participate in this research, which is organized into three phases. During Phase 1, human-centered design processes will be used to develop and refine play guides and parent scaffolds that promote productive pretend play, which is characterized by joyful and creative problem-solving and rich parent/child conversations featuring mathematical and spatial concepts and reasoning. In Phase 2, measures will be developed and validated to operationalize and code this kind of productive parent-child play and play guides will be tested and refined in a local children's museum. In the final phase, a formal field test will investigate the feasibility and acceptability of outreach programming involving the use of play guides over time. Pre-, mid-, and post-intervention measures will estimate program impact on child STEM and social-emotional skill acquisition, relative to a comparison group. An expected outcome of the project will be research-based educational materials that illustrate and support pretend play in ways that generate spatial and mathematical thinking and parent/child conversations. These materials will will be made available to families and informal learning practitioners. 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.

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.