TALES: Making Space for Story-Based Tinkering to Scaffold Early Informal Engineering Learning
This project investigates how stories can be integrated into informal STEM learning experiences for families, as stories can connect children’s prior knowledge and experiences with new conversations and hands-on activities, thereby extending their knowledge. The research is conducted in collaboration with the Children’s Memory and Learning Lab at Loyola University Chicago and Chicago Children’s Museum (CCM), with studies taking place in the Tinkering Lab exhibit at CCM and in families’ homes. We focus on three key questions: (1) What design and facilitation approaches engage young children and their caregivers in creating their own engineering-rich tinkering stories? (2) How can museum program design (e.g., models, interactive displays) and tinkering stories together engender spatial thinking, to further enrich early STEM learning opportunities? and (3) Do the tinkering stories children and their families tell support lasting STEM learning? This project will result in activities, exhibit components, and training resources that invite visitors’ stories into open-ended problem-solving activities. It will advance understanding of mechanisms for encouraging engineering learning and spatial thinking through direct experience interacting with objects, and playful, scaffolded (guided) problem-solving activities.