Ways to Facilitate STEM Learning in a Children’s Museum��Giselle Garcia, Psychology, Roosevelt University. �Mia Marcus, PhD, Roosevelt University
- In this study, the goal was to examine orientations in depth with Hispanic family participants and museum facilitators.
- STEM-rich tinkering supports learning in museum settings such as in improvisational problem solving (Bevan et. al., 2015).
- Staff facilitators are a critical component in informal learning at museums (Pattison et. al., 2017).
- Research Question: What styles do museum facilitators use in orientations for Hispanic families?
- Figure 1 shows the percentage of facilitators that fell into each category. Facilitators tended to fit into one of two categories; engaging or content.
- As families walked into the small workshop of the Tinkering Lab, they were given introductions and orientations by facilitators for the “Make it Roll” challenge.
- Orientation covered on science content, observing and comparing examples using test tracks, and asking questions like:
- ”What did you see?”
- ”Look closely at the cars. How are they different?”
- “Why does this car roll and the one does not?”
- Bevan, B., Gutwill, J. P., Petrich, M., & Wilkinson, K. (2015). Learning through STEM-rich tinkering: Findings from a jointly negotiated research project taken up in practice. Science Education, 99(1), 98-120
- Pattison, S. A., Randol, S. M., Benne, M., Rubin, A., Gontan, I., Andanen, E., … Dierking, L. D. (2017). A Design-Based Research Study of Staff-Facilitated Family Learning at Interactive Math Exhibits. Visitor Studies, 20(2), 138–164. doi: 10.1080/10645578.2017.1404348
- 22 children and their caregiver
- Age range: 6 to 10 years
- Hispanic families from community groups in the Chicago Area
- For the orientation, the facilitator, parent, child, and number of tests performed were each coded according to the following categories:
| |
| Mentioned the challenge of the day, invited families to check out examples |
| Provided engineering concepts behind making a creation move (eg. wheels, axels) |
| Relaxed, back and forth conversation with child. Asked questions, elaborated child’s response. |
| |
| Not involved with the orientation or told child to pay attention/follow. |
Repeating and Reinforcing | Responded to the facilitator, added comments related to orientation |
| Asked child questions, showed more examples, or elaborated what facilitator said. |
| |
| Did not speak at all during the orientation. |
| Responded to a facilitator, parent, and/or sibling, but did not ask questions. |
| Showed curiosity, asked questions, provided explanations, and/or reflected on tests/content/examples |
| |
| Each time a test happened including if it was the ”same creation”; counted for child and facilitator. |
| The person who initiated testing. |
- Figure 2 shows percentage of children that fell into each category in all orientations (group and individual)
- Results demonstrated that the more engaging facilitators were, the more likely children were to be elaborative (r=.80, p=<.001).
Figure 2
Child Behavior during Orientations
- Figure 3 shows the number of tests the child and facilitator performed during orientations
- Results revealed a positive relationship where the more tests facilitators performed, the more likely the child tested, (r=.63,p=.01)