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A two-year project funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (grant no. 2215353) brought together staff at the New York Hall of Science, early childhood educators from Q369 (a public Pre-K center located on the museum's campus), and caregivers whose children were enrolled at the Pre-K center to discuss and collaboratively define family engagement in early science learning.
What does "STEAM" refer to in this project? The collaborative group discussed what aspects of "STEAM" (science, technology, engineering, art, and math) we connected to ourselves, and when supporting young children's learning within each of our roles, to decide whether this acronym was useful in our discussions. Group members argued that engineering and art were important entry points to science learning for young children because they emphasize creativity, problem-solving, and hands-on tools and materials — important aspects of young children's play and exploration in the classroom, in museums, and at home. The group decided to continue using the acronym "STEAM" to describe learning experiences that blend forms of creative expression with opportunities for children to learn about the world or design something to address a problem that they care about.
Our co-design process: Monthly meetings over a one-year period positioned caregivers as experts in discussions about what family engagement in early STEAM learning looks like for local families, and how it might be supported across different community settings. The group then created a vision document outlining the group's shared goals and priorities for supporting families with young children, and brainstormed new family engagement initiatives that represented priority areas for future work.
Collaborative interpretation of interview data with local caregivers
The group reviewed excerpts from interviews that researchers had conducted with a group of 32 local caregivers, and collaboratively sorted quotes into themes relating to caregivers’ goals for children and for themselves, challenges/worries, and roles in children’s learning.
Resource: How-To Guide describing our process for involving community members in interpreting interview data
Defining a vision for family engagement in early STEAM learning
The STEAM Team then created a shared vision for family engagement in early STEAM learning that could guide future work. To do this, the group reflected on who is involved in young children’s STEAM learning, where family engagement in STEAM learning happens in the community, and what elements are important to local families. These discussions allowed the group to collaboratively identify elements, strategies, and challenges of early STEAM learning and family engagement that were important to all stakeholders in the partnership.
Based on the vision that the group outlined together, we engaged in multiple rounds of brainstorming and discussion to imagine new family engagement initiatives that NYSCI could offer to the local community to build and strengthen learning ecosystems for young children and their families. The group collaborative organized, sorted, and developed ideas based on their own lived experiences, and by imagining the perspectives of the personas the group had created earlier in the project.
The priority areas that resulted from these discussions were:
NYSCI in the Neighborhood: Offering hands-on activities in Flushing Meadows park and other community spaces in order to build relationships between NYSCI and families who have not yet visited the museum, and provide greater access to STEAM activities within the community
NYSCI At Home: Sharing simple STEAM activities that can engage the whole family at home (shared via videos, social media, or email newsletters), in order to position NYSCI as an accessible and readily available resource for fun family learning
Caregiver-only Events: Engaging caregivers as learners through workshops and hands-on experiences (e.g., art, technology, language-learning, or maker workshops), in order to provide opportunities for caregivers to engage in self-care, meet other caregivers, and build relationships with one another for ongoing social support.
After-school Programs: Utilizing the museum during after-school hours to provide additional sensory and gross motor play experiences, to support bigger or messier projects that can’t happen in a classroom space, and/or to connect learners across age groups.
Improving Museum Offerings for Young Children: Offering more sensory activities, opportunities for pretend play, simple facilitated experiments, and/or drop-in art and making activities for young children at NYSCI.
The project team has brought these ideas for future work to larger groups of community members in order to gather additional feedback and input about which directions are highest priorities for families with young children in the community. Based on the feedback we receive, we hope to further develop and implement some of these ideas in collaboration with caregivers and Pre-K educators.
This material is based upon work supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation under Grant No. 2215353. Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
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