Work

Tinkering With Testing: Understanding How Museum Program Design Advances Engineering Learning Opportunities for Children

Year: 2021

Type: article

Abstract: Using a design-based research approach, we studied ways to advance opportunities for children and families to engage in engineering design practices in an informal educational setting. 213 families with 5-11-year-old children were observed as they visited a tinkering exhibit at a children's museum during one of three iterations of a program posing an engineering design challenge. Children's narrative reflections about their experience were recorded immediately after tinkering. Across iterations of the program, changes to the exhibit design and facilitation provided by museum staff corresponded to increased families' engagement in key engineering practices. In the latter two cycles of the program, families engaged in the most testing, and in turn, redesigning. Further, in the latter cycles, the more children engaged in testing and retesting during tinkering, the more their narratives contained engineering-related content. The results advance understanding and the evidence base for educational practices that can promote engineering learning opportunities for children.

Source: Frontiers in Psychology

DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.689425

Authors: Maria Marcus, Diana I. Acosta, Pirko Tõugu, David H. Uttal, Catherine A. Haden

Institutions: Roosevelt University, Loyola University Chicago, University of Tartu, Northwestern University

Language: English

Topic: Museums and Cultural Heritage

Subfield: Museology

Field: Arts and Humanities

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Quality education

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $2,950