Science Night to Science on the Go: How a Mobile App Extends Family Workshop Learning

• In Event: Expanding Participation in Science and Technology Learning Through Novel Designs for Family Science Nights

Abstract

Objectives: We research and develop supports for families as science learning environments. We developed a mobile app, Playful Science, to support science engagement at home or on the go. The approach is one of playful exploration of the world immediately around families—the home, the neighborhood, and special places families visit (Luce et al., 2016; Zimmerman & Land, 2014). The app provides activity cards for families to observe and interact with environments and phenomena, prompting shared observations, conversations, and science sensemaking practices. Early app user-tests and family science workshops indicated that parents felt unsure if the playful science approach corresponded with school science demands, wondered where “the right answers were located”, and were generally unconfident in their science knowledge. Family science workshops with the mobile app as a follow up resource were developed in response.

Theoretical Framework: The resulting workshop, app, and research incorporated the theoretical rationales for an experiential, discovery-oriented approach to science (Hammer et al., 2005; Warren et al., 2001) and a design-based approach to research (Brown, 1992). It also introduced the use of the mobile app as a scaffold for immersive family activities that considered the integration of mobile affordances and complex family interactions (Goldman & Jimenez, 2016; Roschelle, 2003).

Methods, Data Sources, and Results: The family workshop for elementary school parents was followed by a month in which families were asked to complete four to six app activities and rate their experiences, attitudes, and confidence levels. A few families also volunteered for interviews. The research methods included observing and recording families in the workshops and as they used the apps. With consent, families recorded video and audio through a built-in app feature. We employed interaction analyses after transcribing segments of the workshop and app sessions to describe the features of interactions with the app and science. We also examined the duration and flow of conversations on all topics across the sessions. We interrogated how family members engaged with the app, each other, and the science. We asked, “Were the workshop modeled exploratory and playful science practices sustainable?” and, “In what ways did the app perform as a post-workshop support?” We describe the confidence parents and children developed in relation to the workshop approach. We identify features of family science conversations as we saw a range of practices such as the generation of multiple hypotheses, observations, explanations, scientific reasoning, and asking and innovating on procedures. We also report when families question the science, the approach, the app, and their confidence.

Significance: The analysis of family activity and conversation across contexts offers new insights into how families are resources to be cultivated for science learning. We seek to understand the role of family science workshops experiences can play and the role that technologies might play in extending their reach with families.

Authors

• Shelley V. Goldman, Stanford University

• Soren Rosier, Stanford University

• Megan R. Luce, Stanford University