Connecting play experiences and engineering learning in a children's museum

Tõugu, Pirko; Marcus, Maria; Haden, Catherıne A.; Uttal, David H.

doi:10.1016/j.appdev.2017.09.001

Cited by 23 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…This expands on the work by Pruden and colleagues (Pruden & Levine, 2017; Pruden et al, 2011), who studied this phenomenon over a longer time period in a less controlled context and adds to the growing body of literature regarding the importance of parental spatial language (Thomson et al, 2018). Play was chosen for this study due to the essential role parent–child play is known to have in child learning (Milteer, Ginsburg, Council On Communications And Media, & Committee On Psychosocial Aspects Of Child And Family Health, 2012; Sim & Xu, 2017; Tõugu et al, 2017; Wasik & Jacobi‐Vessels, 2017). The presence or absence of differences in parental spatial language during play, however, are not necessarily representative of the overall spatial language children are exposed to.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gender differences in mothers’ spatial language use and children’s mental rotation abilities in Preschool and Kindergarten

Ralph

Berinhout

Maguire

2020

Developmental Science

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Mental rotation has emerged as an important predictor of success in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM). By the age of 4.5 years, boys outperform girls in these abilities. Because parents use less spatial language with girls at this age (Pruden and Levine, 2017), the amount of spatial language that children are exposed to at home is believed to be one potential contributor to this disparity in preschool age children. To date, it is unclear if this gender difference continues when children enter school. To address this question in this study, children not yet in kindergarten (PreK) and kindergarten and first grade children (K+) were recorded playing with their mothers using magnetic tile toys followed by children's completion of a mental rotation task. As expected, mothers used more spatial language with PreK boys than girls; however, this relationship reversed in K+, with mothers using significantly more spatial language with girls than boys. Surprisingly, despite this, boys outperformed girls on the mental rotation task. These findings suggest that although girls’ exposure to spatial language is higher after entry into school, this language difference is not reflected in increases in mental rotation abilities. Thus, earlier exposure to spatial language may be vital for the development of mental rotation abilities.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gender differences in mothers’ spatial language use and children’s mental rotation abilities in Preschool and Kindergarten

Ralph

Berinhout

Maguire

2020

Developmental Science

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“…Early STEM experiences are associated with higher achievement in math, spatial reasoning, and engineering (Casey et al, 2008;Grissmer et al, 2013;Gunderson & Levine, 2011;Jirout & Newcombe, 2015;Levine, Ratliff, Huttenlocher, & Cannon, 2012;Levine, Suriyakham, Rowe, Huttenlocher, & Gunderson, 2010;Pruden, Levine, & Huttenlocher, 2011;Ramani & Siegler, 2014;Tõugu, Marcus, Haden, & Uttal, 2017;Verdine et al, 2014). For example, experimental evidence shows that playing linear number board games can improve number knowledge (Siegler & Ramani, 2009) and when parents and children engage with an instructional and playful mathematics app at home, even just once a week, children's math achievement improves (Berkowitz et al, 2015).…”

Section: Informal Experiences Support Stem Achievementmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Early experiences may be particularly powerful for providing children with the skills that are needed for continued and sustained STEM learning. Tõugu et al (2017) found that children who engaged in more spatial play at home benefited more from instruction on how to solve engineering problems in a museum, suggesting that these home experiences may allow children to make better use of informal learning opportunities in educational settings. Taken together, this research suggests that informal experiences engaging with STEM at an early age may provide children with critical skills for subsequent learning and support later STEM achievement.…”

Section: Informal Experiences Support Stem Achievementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Leveraging Research on Informal Learning to Inform Policy on Promoting Early STEM

Hurst

Polinsky²,

Haden

et al. 2019

Social Policy Report

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In recent decades, educators and policymakers in the United States have increased their focus on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) learning opportunities both in school and in informal learning environments outside of school. Informal STEM learning can take place in varied settings and involves a variety of STEM domains (e.g., engaging in engineering practices in a construction exhibit at a museum; talking about math during book reading at home). Here we provide a selective review of the literature on informal STEM learning to illustrate how these educational experiences are crucial for efforts to increase early STEM learning even before children reach school age. Leveraging cognitive and learning science research to inform policy, we make three recommendations to advance the impact of informal STEM learning: 1) integrate cognitive and learning science-based learning practices into informal learning contexts, 2) increase accessibility and diversity of informal STEM experiences, and 3) create explicit connections and coherence between formal and informal STEM learning opportunities in early childhood education.

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“…A possible method that would develop young children's identity as potential engineers is the use of dramatic inquiry (DI), a dialogic inquiry and dramatic play-based pedagogy (Edmiston, 1998;Edmiston, 2014) and other artistic approaches such as art and dance. Studies have shown that during play students exhibit behaviors that are consistent with those used during the engineering design process (Gold et al, 2015;Park et al, 2018) and earlier engineering play can help them to be more successful in later engineering challenges (Tõugu et al, 2017). Tõugu et al (2017) asked families with young children in a museum setting to solve an engineering design problem together using spatial play.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Studies have shown that during play students exhibit behaviors that are consistent with those used during the engineering design process (Gold et al, 2015;Park et al, 2018) and earlier engineering play can help them to be more successful in later engineering challenges (Tõugu et al, 2017). Tõugu et al (2017) asked families with young children in a museum setting to solve an engineering design problem together using spatial play. The children were then asked to solve a second problem on their own and the researchers found that the children experienced even greater success completing the second engineering design problem after first experiencing play and engineering design.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Engineering Design Challenges in Early Childhood Education: Effects on Student Cognition and Interest

Malone

Tiarani

Irving

et al. 2018

European Journal of STEM Education

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This mixed methods study is one of the first to evaluate the effects of the incorporation of dramatic inquiry, dance, visual arts and physical education into preK-3 science, technology, engineering and mathematics units on student conceptual understanding of technology and engineering. The study used data collected from over 200 student surveys and focus group interviews with 14 teachers. The use of integrated STEAM units supported significant improvement in 4 to 8 year old students' understanding of engineering and technology. We report an average 55% increase in student understanding of what engineers do, and a 36% increase in their understanding of technology. The effect sizes for both assessments showed mostly large effects for all grade levels. The pre test scores across all grade levels were not significantly different. By implementing these integrated units with our younger students, we aimed to nurture their interest and understanding of engineering and technology across grade levels. This study results imply that students may not learn about these important topics outside of school hours; thus, it is important they become acquainted with these topics during school hours. Our work suggests that engineering units with dramatic inquiry should be introduced beginning in kindergarten.

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Connecting play experiences and engineering learning in a children's museum

Cited by 23 publications

References 41 publications

Gender differences in mothers’ spatial language use and children’s mental rotation abilities in Preschool and Kindergarten

Gender differences in mothers’ spatial language use and children’s mental rotation abilities in Preschool and Kindergarten

Leveraging Research on Informal Learning to Inform Policy on Promoting Early STEM

Engineering Design Challenges in Early Childhood Education: Effects on Student Cognition and Interest

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