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.

The investigators propose to conduct a series of studies concerning how it is that people visualize and comprehend large-scale geologic structures and how it is that instructors in Geoscience ought best to teach about them. This project will contribute to basic knowledge of spatial cognition. The investigators will conduct a series of behavioral experiments, using artificial geologic outcrops constructed on the La11:lont-Doherty campus and using tabletop architectural models of the campus. The outcrops, each about a meter across, would together form a buried geologic structure, such as a basin, a symmetric syncline, or an asymmetric plunging syncline, at a realistic scale (i.e;,hundreds of meters across). The outcrops will not be visible from each
other, so the participants will need to integrate what can be seen to construct a mental image of the entire structure. !Participants will be guided around the outcrops and then be tested on their representations (e.g., askedtb choose accurate models of the structure). They will also take standard tests of spatial ability and verbal-spatial.learning style. The investigators will examine (a) the development of skill on the outcrop task among novices through practice and repetition in the absence ofinst~ction; (b) the relationship among spatial abilities, learning style, and performance on the outcrop task; and (c) strategies used by experts, low-performing noyices,and high-performing novices in doing the outcrop task.

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.

Intellectual Merit: Michigan Technological University and Pennsylvania State University propose a collaborative project to test the hypothesis that an educational intervention (earlier shown to increase retention of woman engineering students) may also increase middle-school girls' STEM-relevant spatial skills. The project will further test the hypothesis that increases in cognitive spatial skill will also enhance girls' self-efficacy and valuing of spatial skills, and decrease the stereotyping of such skills as masculine. The intervention effects on STEM-related course choices and job interests will also be examined, while testing whether effects of the spatial-skill intervention, if observed, are (a) the direct result of enhanced spatial skills or (b) mediated by girls' changed self-efficacy, values, and stereotypes. Approximately 400 7th grade students in two diverse middle schools will be randomly assigned, by classrooms, to receive the spatial skills curriculum or to receive their regular instruction. Prior to and following the intervention, and again approximately a year later, all students will complete an assessment battery to measure their spatial skills and attitudes and beliefs about spatial skills (self-confidence/efficacy, values, stereotyping). At the end of 8th grade, all students will be assessed for their interests in and plans for spatially-demanding STEM courses and careers.

Broader Impacts: The project PIs and Co-PIs will provide training on the curriculum to middle-school teachers in the two cooperating school districts, monitor student success and the fidelity of implementation. Dissemination efforts will reflect the interdisciplinary nature of the team (collaborative PIs and Co-PIs represent the fields of engineering, developmental and cognitive science, and gender studies), the relevance of spatial thinking for a wide array of science and engineering organizations, and the simultaneous theoretical and educational goals of the study.

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.